


Ordinary

by DrgRcnGrl



Category: Ouran High School Host Club - All Media Types
Genre: AU, Au College life, College, F/M, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, OoC at times, Post Anime
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-11
Updated: 2020-08-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 16:40:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 26
Words: 30,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23590216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DrgRcnGrl/pseuds/DrgRcnGrl
Summary: Once Haruhi Fujioka graduated from Ouran, she decided to go to Harvard Law in America to follow in her mother's footsteps. Of course, the entire club had to follow along!Haruhi's roommate, Elizabeth Hawthorne, definitely did not ask for this motley crew. Little did she know, they would be the best thing that ever happened to her.
Relationships: Fujioka Haruhi/Suoh Tamaki, Ootori Kyouya/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 21
Kudos: 74





	1. Chapter 1

My grandfather once told me that no matter what you think will happen, or what you want to happen, life will have other plans for you. It wasn’t until my family suddenly decided to make the move to Boston when I started college at Harvard that I truly realized what he meant.

~

“Where are my shoes, Mother?” I called out, shuffling through boxes. None of them seemed to bear my favorite pair of shoes. “Please don’t tell me they were on the load that we lost!”

It was a few moments until she answered me. “I’m not sure, hon, which load were they  in?” she asked as something crashed. I chose not to ask.

“The same one with my clothes!” I couldn’t find those either. It wasn’t a good sign.

“Sorry, hon, I think that was the one we lost!” She poked her head into my room. It looked naked. The closet was bare, save for a few shirts and pants, but because it was a walk-in, it looked practically empty. My shoe rack bore one pair of shoes, tennis shoes I wore on the flight in, and one pair of comfy, fuzzy slippers.

My parents were helping me move into a dorm on campus at college. They moved the entire family to Massachusetts from Illinois just to be close to me. They planned on helping me unpack while I was at orientation as a college present.

My roommate must have been here earlier, as her things were on her side of the room. A simple bedspread, a few picture frames on the walls, and a coffee cup with an H on it. I hadn’t met her, though she didn’t seem to be a slob. Hopefully she was nice. I've heard too many roommate horror stories.

I sighed. “That’s alright, I’ll just wear my tennis shoes today. Should we go shopping later this week? I’m not sure how long I can live off of three shirts and one pair of pants, and just tennis shoes.”

My mother gave me a sympathetic look. “I’m sorry, honey. Yes, we’ll go shopping later. You need to be off to orientation. You’re going to be late.”

Glancing at my watch, I cursed. “You’re right. I’ll see you later!” I rushed out the door, kissing my father on the cheek on my way out.

That was my first oversight. Forgetting my shoes.

~

I was beyond embarrassed that I didn’t have shoes on when I got to the university’s main center, so I stopped by their school shop and got a pair of plain shoes that looked like they were made by a three year old with no imagination. It would have to do, though.

My orientation started with a breakfast of muffins, juice, coffee, and a large variety of fruits. I took a muffin, juice, and some fruit before I took my seat near the front of the crowd of chairs. There was a podium in front of the crowd, and I was one of the first people seated.

“You think this was _instant_ _coffee_?”

“Tamaki, it probably wasn’t, not at a university like this-”

“You  _ really think _ so?”

I turned around at the loud voices. A girl with short brown hair and a boy with light blond hair were seated behind me, chatting back and forth. Next to them was a pair of twins with red hair, a black haired male with glasses, another tall male with black hair but no glasses, and a small child. __

_ I wonder whose child it is. _

They paused their conversation when they saw me staring.

I hummed, just to break the silence. “Hi.” There was no harm in making new friends. I surely needed some, especially after moving to a new state.

“Hello!” the blond male said happily, grinning at me. “Are you here for orientation, too?”

_ What else would I be here for? Do I look like a professor? Not in these shoes. _

“Yes, I am. Are you all freshman?” I asked with a smile.

The black haired boy with glasses nodded, pushing his glasses up. “Yes,” he said flatly.

_ Well, aren’t  _ you _ just made of sugar. _

“We waited for all of us to graduate high school so we can  _ all _ be here  _ together _ ! It’s Haruhi’s first time in America, she chose this college,” the blond beamed at the brown haired girl.

The girl pushed his shoulder, chuckling. “Cut it out, S- Tamaki.” She gave his cheek a quick kiss before brushing her hair back behind her ear.

I looked at her. “I like your haircut, by the way.”

“Thanks,” she smiled at me. She seemed happy enough. “It wasn’t my plan to go short for high school, but it happened. I decided to grow it out a bit now.”

“She had such beautiful hair before it was cut,” the male beamed. “I wish it would grow back faster!”

I turned back around to face forward, only to realize that most of the chairs were filled up and a man was walking up to the podium.

“Welcome, freshmen of Harvard College! Today is your first step into life as a college student!” a man announced, looking a bit too cheerful. It took all I had to listen to everything he had to say.

~

When I arrived back at my dorm after orientation, which had taken about two hours longer than I expected, I was surprised to see the group of Japanese guys and girl standing in the hallway. I gave them a slight wave as I slid my card into the slot to open my door.

The blond boy, the tall one, gasped. “You live right next door?”

“It seems so,” I laughed a bit, pausing before opening my door. “I never caught your names.”

“Well, I’m glad you asked! I’m Suoh Tamaki from Japan,” the male announced. “This is my girlfriend, Fujioka Haruhi, my best friend, Ootori Kyoya, and my other friends, Morinozuka Takashi, Haninozuka Mitsukini, Hitachiin Hikaru and Hitachiin Kaoru.”

Oh goodness. That’s a lot of long and complicated names. “Alrighty then.. I’m Elizabeth Hawthorne, but you can call me Liz.”

The male introduced as Hikaru, or maybe it was Kaoru, frowned. “Don’t Americans usually start with your first name, then your last name? Because if so, boss, you got our names all screwed up.”

Tamaki glanced at everybody, then back at me. “Oh yeah! I’m Tamaki, this is my girlfriend Haruhi, my best friend Kyoya, and my other friends, Mori-Senpai, Hani-Senpai, Hikaru, and Kaoru. Is that better?”

“I’m gonna say yes,” I said with a soft laugh. He was so rambunctious. 

Haruhi tilted her head. “This is your room? You must be my roommate then.”

I smiled. “Yeah. I didn’t know who my roommate was, so I guess you’re it. It’s nice to meet you all. I take it you’re all from Asia?” I felt stupid after I said that. It should have been obvious, with their looks and accents. _Duh_ , they are all from Asia.

The only girl in the group, Haruhi, laughed. “Yeah, we’re all from Japan. Doing pretty good at our English, though, wouldn’t you say?”

“Pretty good,” I nodded. “You get your point across pretty smoothly, and that’s what’s important. Your accents aren’t too bad either. You’ll probably want to work on your grammar and such for essays, though. That might be the breaking point for most transfers. Anyway, do you all live in these dorms?”

One of the twins answered for the group. “Yeah. I live in the one across the hall, this one here is Kyoya and Tamaki’s, and Mori-Senpai and Hani-Senpai’s is right across from ours.”

My dorm was right across from Kyoya and Tamaki’s. At least I knew who I was living across from, and with. I had no doubt that they would be spending time in my -our- dorm, being friends with Haruhi. “That’s nice, you guys all know each other. It must make it easier to live in a foreign country.”

“It really does,” the smallest said in a cheerful voice. Was that the one called Hani-Senpai?

I tilted my head. “Please don’t mind my asking, but why do you put Senpai after Hani and Mori’s names?”

“It’s for respect, elder respect,” Haruhi said, glancing at the two she was talking about. “They’re the eldest of us. Normally, I would call Tamaki and Kyoya my Senpais, but it’s not custom in America, is it?”

_ He’s older than them? Maybe he just looks young for his age. _

“No, it’s just Japanese,” I laughed. “Although, in Spanish, they have something like that. English doesn’t have that sort of differentiation.” We also don't 'gender' objects, but that was a different story. No offense, Spanish language.

She smiled. “Yeah, but it’s fun to learn.”

“Are you going to the mixer later?” Tamaki said, suddenly changing the subject. “It’d be grand to know someone that’s going!”

I shrugged. “That depends. What time is it?”

“Starts at seven,” Haruhi answered for him. “And Tamaki, it’s not called a mixer. It’s called a stand-around.”

Tamaki just shrugged, grinning as he unlocked his door. “I heard there’ll be ice cream. I hope we see you there, Elizabeth!”

He seemed friendly enough.


	2. Chapter 2

Mother had left a note on my mini-fridge. ‘Hope you like our gift! It’s on your bed. Love, Mom and Dad’

I smiled to myself. “Awe, you guys didn’t have to do that,” I said aloud, even though they already left. To be quite honest, I appreciated every little gift I got. I suspected that I got a lot more than my older sister did when she went to college because now they’re empty-nesters. Yes, they helped her out, but they seem to be holding tighter to me than ever before- not that I’m going to complain.

As it turned out, the ‘gift’ was probably the best thing in the entire world. It was a wax warmer with a chalkboard on the front, complete with a tiny piece of chalk, and a large pile of different wax melts from my favorite brand. They couldn’t have been very cheap. “Oh my goodness,” I grinned, taking a seat next to the pile of wax melts.

I didn’t waste any time opening each and every wax melt to smell it. Every smell was similar, yet so different. I loved them all. It took forever and a day for me to choose which one to put in first, but I finally decided on Summer Dreams. It smelled like burning firewood and something sweet, like marshmallow. Its aroma reminded me of summer nights, sitting by the bonfire, roasting marshmallows and listening to the gossip of my friends. All good memories. It was my favorite scent..

After placing two blocks of the wax into the melter, I turned it on and took hold of the chalk. “I wonder what I should write on the board..” I said aloud, tapping my finger against my chin. I considered this for a while before I finally decided on a quote. Short, sweet.

“Life is not a dress rehearsal.” Author unknown.

As the smell began to overtake my small dorm- it was really more of a studio room or a dorm, besides the bathroom in the corner that was enclosed- I heard the door of my dorm open. I turned around to see who it was.

Haruhi walked in, her backpack slung over her right shoulder. Her hair was slightly messier than it had been before. “Hey, Elizabeth,” she greeted me with a smile, dropping her bag off beside her bed as she walked in.

I waved at her politely. “Hello.” If this was how our greetings would be every day, this would grow old fast, I guarantee it.

“Tamaki forgot to tell you where the stand-around was,” she said with a small laugh. “You’ve got something on your nose, by the way.”

I paused. “Oh, it’s probably just chalk.” I brushed it away with my sleeve. “Where’s the party?”

“That’s a good question.. He said it was in the president’s yard, but it could be in the park instead. Either way, do you want to walk with us, so you won’t be alone?”

Was I already making new friends here?  _ Score _ . “Uh, sure! I’d like that,” I said with a genuine smile. She seemed really sweet.

Haruhi smiled back at me. “Great. We’ll start walking down at around six-fifty then.”

I hadn’t been sure if I was going to the party earlier, but now I guess the decision was made. I was going to my first college party with a group of people I just met. Fantastic.

Right on the dot of six-fifty, there was a knock on my door. Quite a few knocks, actually, but I only paid attention to the first kock. “Coming!” I called out, grabbing my wallet to shove into my pocket. Even though I had no intention of drinking, I was underage anyway, it was good to have your I.D. with you. My school I.D. card’s picture was downright awful though.

I opened my door, and was surprised to see all six of the boys dressed in rather nice clothing. Dress pants, black shoes, a nice shirt, and a tie or bowtie for all. Haruhi and I were in rather plain clothing. Instantly, I felt underdressed, though Haruhi’s attire made me less self-conscious. Weren’t these parties informal?

“Hey, guys,” I smiled through my thoughts, closing and locking my door. “Thanks for letting me walk with you.”

“No problem,” the smallest blonde said. His name was Hani. I was sure of it.

On our way down to the location- the park, as it turned out- we were greeted by quite a few girls. If this was animation, they would have had hearts for eyes. It was almost ridiculous. They’re just people.

“So, Elizabeth, what are you here to study?” Haruhi asked me as we walked, ignoring all the looks from other people. I noticed she was holding Tamaki’s hand, and he looked smug.

“I’m not really sure yet,” I replied with a shrug. “Harvard is famous for law, I think, but I’m more interested in something medical.”

“What made you interested in the medical field?” the black haired boy with glasses asked, suddenly looking curious. Kyoya was his name, if I remembered correctly.

I just shrugged again. “Lots of things. I’ve always wanted to help people, especially after my grandpa died. He always told me that I was destined for great things, and helping people is my nature.”

“My apologies about your grandfather.”

“It’s alright, he probably likes being talked about,” I smiled. “What are you guys here to study? Anything in particular?”

Haruhi looked down, then back at me. “I’m here to study law.”

“Oh?”

“My late mother was a lawyer, and I want to follow in her footsteps.”

“I hate to ask, but why aren’t you studying law in Japan?” I asked.

Haruhi exhaled slowly. “Law isn’t as common a practice in Japan like it is here. It isn’t needed as much because our government is set up differently. I did some research, and decided that America would be the best place to study and practice law.”

I smiled. “I hope you all like it here so far. I’m not used to this area in particular, but it seems really quaint.”

“I like it alright,” she replied with a small smile. After she got done mentioning her mother, she looked a bit more happy, like a weight was lifted off of her chest.

“What about the rest of you? What are you here to study?” I asked

“Communication,” Tamaki declared. “It seemed only right. Besides, it’s what I’m good at.”

“I’m going to major in economics and business management,” Kyoya said, sounding rather bored. Did anything interest him?

“I’m going to study culinary!” Hani exclaimed gleefully.

“Law enforcement,” the male next to him said blankly.

“We’re studying art and design,” the twins said in unison. They glanced at each other, then shrugged.

The one with the deeper voice spoke first. “Our mother is a fashion designer, and she wanted us to be able to continue her business.”

“We thought it would be easiest if we got a degree or two in fashion, especially since America is so bursting with fashion,” the other one grinned.

I frowned. “Wouldn’t Paris be a better option?”

“Technically, yes, but we wanted to all stay together,” they shrugged.

“That’s kind of sweet. Are you all really close friends from high school?”

Very quickly, I learned that I didn’t know the half of it. It was quite interesting, really.


	3. Chapter 3

The following day, a Sunday, I decided that I would take a trip to the local mall to get clothes. I asked Mother if she wanted to go, but she decided to go to church and help out instead.

“Maybe we can go tomorrow?” she suggested over the phone. It was obvious by her tone that she was doing something; her mind wasn’t in the conversation.

I sighed. “School starts tomorrow, and my first class is at eight. I’d really like to go today so I can wash the clothes for tomorrow.” I was very lucky to have a little room on my dorm’s floor that had a few washers and dryers.

“Didn’t you say that you had made some friends already? Ask them to go with you! You need to make as many friends as you can, to look out for you.”

“I guess I could ask my roommate,” I replied absently, walking around my dorm. I was alone at the moment, the boys had taken Haruhi hostage. The dorm wasn’t a bad size. It was about the size of a small high school classroom and the space was taken up just by large furniture. It didn’t look too homey, and that was what the trip to the mall would help with. “Do you think fairy lights would look nice?”

Mother couldn’t contain her excitement. “You know, that’s just what I was thinking! It’ll make it look a lot more homey, and you had fairy lights in your room at home.”

“That’s right. Where did they go?”

“I don’t know, hon. I’ve gotta go. Say hello to your friends for me.”

“I will,” I replied, hanging up. I fell back against the couch, which was larger than the one we had at home, and grabbed a pillow.

The party the night before had lasted until a bit after midnight, but it was really fun. The boys I had gone with were quite popular. It was no surprise, with their charm and good looks, but I didn’t expect all the girls in college to be so.. Whore-ish. They didn’t seem to mind them, though.

“I wonder if they would like to go to the mall with me,” I said quietly to myself, looking up at the ceiling. “Oh God. Popcorn ceiling.”

Popcorn ceilings were the absolute worst. My mom’s friend once moved into a house with popcorn ceilings, and they were absolutely horrible to pain over. The texture would fall back on you, and it was a colossal mess.

The door of our dorm opened, revealing Haruhi, who shut it promptly, wiping her forehead.

I raised my eyebrows. “Hey?”

“Hi,” she replied breathlessly.

“What’s up…?” I asked slowly. She was breathless, and had sweat on her forehead. One would wonder what she had been doing.

Haruhi laughed nervously. “Just… Running,” she replied. “They wouldn’t stop chasing me around the park. I finally escaped.” 

_ That definitely wasn’t what I thought she would say, but alright. _ “They seem like a lively bunch. Were they this way in high school?”

She snickered, walking over to her desk. “Way worse. They’re on their best behavior right now.” As usual, she was wearing a simple t-shirt and blue jeans. I wondered if that was what was custom to wear in Japan. 

I couldn’t help a grin. “Really?”

“Yeah, they had a host club,” she nodded. “They’ll probably tell you about it later. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if they tried to start one here. It was their favorite pastime.”

“What’s a host club?” My head absently tilted.

“It’s a club where guys entertain girls, usually by charming them. They served tea, used very precise manners, and flirted.”

“Were you a regular customer or something?” I asked, not thinking. What if I was asking too much into this? Would she get offended? I’ve only known her for a day-

She held back a snort. “Um, no, I was never a customer.” Haruhi then dove into the story of how she broke an expensive vase that was going to be sold at an auction, and how they made her act as a male in order to repay them for the vase.

My head tilted when she was done. “Couldn’t your parents pay for it?” Surely they would be able to cover the price of a vase.

Haruhi shook her head. “No, it was a really pricey piece. Eight million yen. I’m not sure how much that is in American dollars.”

I held up a finger as I pulled up Google on my laptop. A few seconds later, I exhaled. “Almost sixty-five thousand dollars? For a vase?”

Why was a high school selling a vase at an auction? And one that _expensive_?

She just shrugged. “It was from the Renaissance. Anyway, I went through all of high school dressed in a male uniform. It wasn’t until the last day of school that they put makeup on me and shoved me into the girl’s uniform. Nobody was surprised, though. A lot of them said they could tell.” Her English was spoken so smoothly, as if she had spoken it her whole life. The only hint that she was foreign was her accent, which was not thick at all.

I smiled at her. “You had to entertain girls through high school, then? How was that?”

“It wasn’t that bad. We were suppose to charm, not seduce, and that’s easy enough. They called me the Natural type.”

That made me laugh. “You all had types, then?”

Haruhi snickered. “Yeah. Tamaki was the Princely type, Kyoya was the Cool type, the twins were the Mischievous type, Mori was the Wild type, and Hani was the Boy-Lolita type.”

“I’m not surprised about Hani. Is he really-”

“Twenty?” she finished. “Yeah. He’ll probably have that baby-face when he’s old and got grey hair.”

There was something interesting about her. She was so nonchalant, easy to talk to. I wasn’t at all surprised that she was dubbed the Natural type. “Oh! By the way, I need to go to the mall later to pick up some things. Do you want to come with? We can bring the boys along, too, if you want.”

She shrugged. “Sure. They'd love to come too- but they're a handful. I hope you're ready for that. They aren't used to doing normal people things."

"Oh?" I asked, cocking my head to one side. "Why's that?"

Haruhi hummed. "They don't exactly lead normal lives. Let's just put it that way."

Just like that, I had planned an outing with new friends. The second day of college wasn’t going bad at all.


	4. Chapter 4

Just a few hours later, we were at the mall. By then, it was lunch time, and nobody wasted any time announcing their need for sustenance.

“What is there to eat in these malls?” one of the twins asked, sniffing rather loudly. “I smell-”

“-sushi!” the other twin, the one with the slighter higher voice, finished for him. They both slowly turned towards Haruhi, who gave them a sharp glance.

_ Did sushi even have a smell? _

“Cut it out, you guys, I’m not going to eat sketchy American shopping center sushi,” Haruhi said.

I nodded respectfully. “I wouldn’t trust malls, of all places, to have a good sushi. Some of my old friends used to love mall sushi, until they realized it was the reason that they got sick after every mall trip. You gotta go to restaurants known for their sushi and fresh fish." I didn't doubt there was an abundance of that in Boston.

Hani looked at me curiously. He was about my height, maybe a bit shorter, so he didn’t have to break his neck looking up. “Have you ever gotten sick off of mall sushi, Eli-Chan?”

“No,” I replied, shaking my head. “I don’t eat much meat or fish.”

Kyoya paused suddenly, stopping in his tracks. He slowly glanced at me. “That is called ‘vegetarianism’, isn’t it?”

“You’d be correct,” I smiled. “Good use of words. That’s exactly what we call it.” If I were just a passer-by, I would never have guessed that they were visiting and living in America for the first time. Their word usage was en pointe.

He hummed in response, the smallest hint of a smile on his lips. 

Haruhi glanced between us, smiled, then squeezed Tamaki’s hand. “Look, it there’s a sign that says ‘Asian cuisine’. Want to eat there?”

Tamaki gasped. “Asian food, here? We are in America! As I always say, ‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do’! We’ll all eat American food!”

“You’re going to attract security if you’re that loud,” I commented quietly, though with a small chuckle. “Come on, let’s go find some American food.”

We all ended up ordering food at a restaurant called A&W’s. It attracted Tamaki because of the sign that said ‘All-American Food’ in big orange and white letters. Everybody ordered something different. It was harder to find a vegetarian-friendly meal at that place, but I managed to sneak off and buy a salad as they found a place to sit.

Honestly, I wasn't a full-fledged vegetarian. I still ate meat from time to time, but when I did, I wanted to make sure it was worth it. I didn't go out of my way to eat meat on the daily. Special occasions only.

As we ate, the discussion of where we would go began. Haruhi clutched a mall map in her hand, and it wasn’t small.

“Where should we go to first?” she asked, passing the map around.

Hani suddenly gasped and pointed at the map. “There’s a secret?”

I frowned. “What?”

“It says ‘Victoria’s Secret’ right here,” he said, pointing to a box on the map with a caption.

It took all I had in me to not burst out laughing. “Uh, yeah, that place is a mystery to everybody. We can avoid that place, if you don’t mind.” Those guys shouldn't be too interested in womens' undergarments. I'd be worried if they were.

The subject was dropped, and as soon as we were done eating, it was declared that we were going to have our first stop be a department store called Target.

“Tar-schay, here we come!”

“I think it’s pronounced ‘Tar-Get’, Tamaki,” Haruhi said, her tone subtly amused.

I just laughed to myself, getting my list out of my pocket. “I want to get some fairy lights, a rug, maybe a table lamp, and some other things to decorate our walls. It looks so plain.”

Haruhi nodded in agreement. “I agree. I just have a few pictures of my mom and dad on my side.”

“If you want, we can get some frames for the pictures. I saw they were just thumbtacked to the wall,” I told her. “I need a few frames, anyway. And they have these things called command strips that don't make holes in the walls, they come right down when you don't want them anymore."

I led the motley crew into the department store, heading right towards the back where the pictures and frames were. “You guys can all do your own thing, if you want. As long as we meet up at the end, I’m okay.”

“No, no, we need an English-speaking American who can explain things to us that we don’t understand,” the deeper-voiced twin said.

“Yeah, what if we run into something confusing?” the other one retorted.

I rolled my eyes, looking around the frames. Haruhi stood next to me, and every few seconds she picked up a frame, touching along the edges.

I smiled. “That one would look good with your mother’s picture in it. This color would compliment her hair color.”

“Thanks,” Haruhi replied with a matching smile. “I had a frame back at home to put her picture in, but my dad must have lost track of it before I got on the plane. He helped me pack all my things.”

“What kind of person is your dad?” I asked curiously, perusing the frames.

Haruhi shrugged, looking on the lower shelf now. It had the larger frames, but not too big. Those were in a different section. “He works at a bar most days, but he’s usually home when I am. He likes it when I wear girly things, but I don’t really see the appeal of it.”

“That's relatable,” I nodded. “My dad was always the kind to make sure that people knew that I was a girl, and I was smart, so on and so forth. When I was younger, I’d play in the dirt and play cars with the boys, but he’d always make me do it in a dress or something.”

“Sounds like my dad,” she laughed. There was silence behind her. I turned around, only to see Kyoya, Mori, and Hani. Haruhi turned around as well, and frowned. “Where’d they all go?”

“Tamaki decided that we should give you two ‘girl’s time’ and left with the twins,” Kyoya explain. “I didn’t want to go with him, so I stayed.”

“I was just listening to you two,” Hani chirped, sounding happy. He seemed happy and upbeat all the time, though a different kind of happy than Tamaki seemed to be. The man whose shoulders Hani was on just ‘hmph’ed and looked at me.

I nodded slowly. “Alright.. I think I like these two. What do you think?” I held up two different frames. One was silver with what looked like colored paint splatters as the design, and the other was rustic silver.

“Those are nice,” Haruhi said. “What do you think of these?” She held up a few that looked similar to mine, except less colorful, and one of them was an olive green color. “The green one for my mother.”

“Perfect.”

“What next?” she asked as she put the frames in our cart.

“Fairy lights.”

By the time we got all the items on my list, it was well past three o’clock. We met up with the rest of the boys for ice cream before they decided that they needed to go around the mall again.

“Haruhi, I found the most adorable kitten litter right here in the mall!” Tamaki squealed between bites of ice cream. “Almost as adorable as you.”

“Awe, how sweet,” I snickered, sipping at my milkshake. “You two are adorable. How long have you been dating?”

“For a few months,” Haruhi replied, rolling her eyes.

Tamaki grinned even so. “She couldn’t deny me any longer!”

“Oh, I’m _sure_ ,” I said nonchalantly. “Where to next?”

It was dinner time before we finally were done with our little shopping trip, and everybody except for Kyoya and Hani had their arms full of bags. Hani’s bags, which were being carried by Mori, were mostly assorted candy he had acquired from the candy store, which was massive. The twins had gone to a store called Spencer’s and ransacked it, buying almost one of everything. And I mean _everything_. Haruhi got some decor and normal-looking clothes, since she hadn’t brought much that wasn't frilly, thanks to her dad. Tamaki had armloads of postcards packed up, and little stuffed animals, and some other things that he neglected to mention, but I didn’t ask. I had my frames, fairy lights- purple colored, of course-, magnets, a cork board, and other usual college things.

I didn’t find it that odd that Tamaki bought most of Haruhi’s things, but what I did find odd was that she was almost negative about it, like she didn’t appreciate it, though I doubted that was the case. She didn’t seem like the type of girl to be unappreciative. It was odd.

“You ready for the first day of classes tomorrow?” Haruhi asked, placing the newly framed pictures back on the wall and her desk.

I was pinning my fairy lights on the walls, all over. It wasn’t as homey with just a boring overhead light. It made everything look more cozy, especially with the purple color. “Yeah, but it’ll probably just be syllabuses and rubrics of how essays go. Formatting. Lectures about the term. Something like that. It should be interesting.”

“We didn’t even see if any of us had class together.”

“I guess we’ll find out about that tomorrow,” I said with a yawn, turning on the fairy lights after I shut the big light off. “Good night.”

“Good night.”


	5. Chapter 5

My second oversight of being at college _(the first being forgetting to wear shoes to orientation)_ was choosing an eight A.M. class. This class had many options, but I figured that I wanted the earliest one. Man, I was very stupid when I was choosing my class schedule.

Haruhi was already up when my phone’s alarm went off. She was sitting at her desk, sipping at some tea. When I grabbed my phone to turn the alarm down, she looked at me. “Good morning.”

I just nodded silently, shutting off the loud alarm. It was six-thirty in the morning. What was I thinking, choosing a morning class before nine? Was I insane when I signed up for classes? “ ‘morning,” I replied sleepily, stifling a yawn.

“I made you some tea. It should be hot still,” she told me, pointing to my desk, which indeed had a cup of tea on it. She had used my personal mug. How thoughtful of her.

Smiling, I slid out of bed. My bottom found the floor before my legs did. “Thank you. How do you say that in Japanese?”

Haruhi chuckled. “Arigatō,” she answered. Her accent was full, and for some reason, I thought it was very elegant.

“Ahr-ee-gah-toe..”

“Try flipping your ‘R’ more, less of an ‘err’ sound,” she said.

I just laughed at myself. “Sorry, I’m better Spanish, kind of a bit of French too. Japanese is way out of my league.”

She shrugged. “You just need some practice, and it’s morning.”

“You’re damn right, it’s morning,” I agreed, pulling a jacket on and grabbing my mug of tea. I took one sip and did my best not to make a face. “What kind is this?”

Haruhi held back a snort. “Green tea, I think is what you Americans call it. What, is it not good?”

I shook my head. “Very tart, not what I usually drink.”

“Well, what do you usually drink?” she asked, taking another sip of her own tea.

“Mostly black tea, vanilla flavored black tea, mint flavored black tea, and white tea,” I said with a shrug. “With lots of milk and sugar.”

“Americans do like things sweeter than we do,” Haruhi commented with a small smile. “Your food is a lot sweeter, especially your sweets. Hani-Senpai will be overjoyed.”

That made me smile. So, Hani was the one who liked all the sweet things.” It’s a wonder that he doesn’t have a million cavities, and pimples everywhere. I usually break out when I eat too many sweets, or candy, as we usually call them.”

“Break out?” she asked, frowning.

“Uh, it’s like when you get a lot of pimples and zits on your face,” I explained. Then, I pointed to a section of my cheek. “Like this. This is what we consider a break-out.”

“I didn’t see that yesterday.”

“That’s the beauty of makeup,” I grinned. It was probably another reason I broke out so much, even being my age; wearing so much makeup. My skin was really bad, a trait I gained from my wonderful father, so foundation and concealer were my best friends. With that, you just have to add blush or bronzer, and some sort of mascara or eyeliner. “I wear it almost every day.”

Haruhi leaned back more in her chair, crossing one of her legs. “Why don’t you let your skin rest more? I think that’s the problem.”

I raised a finger. “You know, I thought that, too, but here’s the thing; I get my skin problems from my dad. He has scarring from when he was a teen and had lots of breakouts. It’s just a way of life, I guess, and runs in the family. Hereditary. I can bet he never wore makeup and nothing helped him.”

“Well, what do you use on your skin?”

That began our conversation on skincare. I didn’t really expect her to know that much about it, considering her skin looked positively flawless. To my surprise, she actually knew quite a bit. A few times, she had to pause in our conversation and open up her translation book. She was no pro at English, like how I would never become a pro in speaking Japanese. We’re all human; I didn’t blame her one bit. It had only been a few days.

By the time our conversation ended, I had already dressed and gotten ready for my first class. It was across campus, so I left half an hour early, after she made me eat something. She was already acting like a motherly figure, not that I minded. My older sister was the same way, and that wasn’t a bad thing.

I made it across campus with no trouble, lugging along my laptop satchel and my sling bag. I tried to make sure that everything I carried was as light as possible. There was no need to lug half of my room all across campus for one class.

When I arrived in the room, I learned that it was no small class. Choosing carefully, I sat down next inbetween a black haired male and a bald man.

The black haired male turned to look at me, and it took me a few seconds to realize who it was. “Kyoya?”

His eyes were pink, and there were grey bags under them. His hair was messed up, his clothes wrinkled. He let out a small sigh. “Yes, it’s me.”

“Did you get in a fight or something?”

“Tamaki kept me awake all night, babbling about..” He yawned, covering his mouth. “- how you and Haruhi were going to be the best of friends, how you’re her first real female friend.”

My eyebrows rose curiously. “Oh, alright. Do you need anything to stay awake?” He looked like he hadn't slept in weeks.

“I’m alright,” he replied flatly, looking away.

Thinking fast, I pulled a bag out of my pocket. “Here, try these. They might help you wake up,” I said.

He frowned at the bag. “What are those?”

Laughing, I replied, “Chocolate-covered coffee beans. Try one, it’s pretty good.” I didn’t plan on eating them myself, I’m not the biggest fan of coffee beans, but if I ever needed a pick-me-up, I had those. “My sister swears by them.”

Kyoya hesitated before he took one, popping it into his mouth. His expression changed from pleasure to confusion, and then back to pleasure.

“You like?”

“It’s not awful.”

His response made me smile. “You can have a few more, if you like. My sister made me a whole jar, and it’s under my bed.”

He nodded, pushing up his glasses. “I see. Thank you.”

I grinned slowly. “Don’t you mean, arigatō?”

It was the first time I actually saw the guy smile, and this time, it wasn’t a fake smile. He had a nice smile.

The class began shortly after our exchange, and I pulled my laptop out, typing everything I saw. Kyoya had a black laptop, and was doing the same. Every few minutes, I’d ask him if he caught something I missed, and he always had. The man seemed to be very observant, and a good listener. No doubt, he would be a great study-buddy in the future, getting ready for semester exams.

“I’m sure you all know about John Locke. Can anybody name his most famous contributions?” our professor- she said she wanted to be addressed as ‘Susan’- asked, looking around. “It should have been in your packet you got at orientation.”

I frowned. Packet? _When were we handed a packet?_ I raised my hand.

Susan pointed at me. “You. Go.”

“John Locke was the man who coined the phrase ‘Life, liberty, and estate’, though in the United States, we hear the phrase ‘Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’ more often,” I started. “He also believed that separation of church and state was vital, and that-”

“What was his philosophy?”

I was taken aback. I didn’t expect a professor to so openly interrupt me. _Maybe this was just how college was._ Recollecting myself, I replied, “That the government, under the consent of the people, should protect the people’s rights to life, liberty, and estate. Estate meaning property of any kind, including slaves, land, and animals.”

“Thank you, that is the exact answer I was looking for. And your name is…?”

“Elizabeth,” I replied. It took everything I had not to gloat.

Beside me, Kyoya pushed his glasses further up his nose, humming. He quickly typed something into his laptop, though he didn’t look at it. His English was far more advanced than I would have imagined it would be. There was something about him that just made me curious, something that told me there was more to him than what was on the cover. Then again, I could say that about everybody.


	6. Chapter 6

“Are you going to come down with us for lunch, Elizabeth?” Haruhi asked me as she slid her books back on the shelf at the end of her bed.

“Is that an invitation?” I said, quirking a smile. It was almost unreal how easy they had become my friends. Yes, they were a nice group of people, but to cling to me and call me a friend so soon? It wasn’t something I was used to, though I welcomed the feeling.

We walked down to the dining hall together, where the boys were all waiting. The twins were dressed in sleek sweatpants and jackets. Mori had jeans on and a leather jacket, on his shoulders, Hani was wearing a colorful t-shirt and blue jeans. Tamaki bore a white shirt with an American flag on it, and tan shorts that went just below his knees. Kyoya was in the same thing I had seen him in earlier; a dark blue shirt, black pants, a silver jacket, and designer tennis shoes. Their styles matched their personalities, I thought, even though I didn’t know their personalities much yet.

The twins were the first to see Haruhi and myself. Rushing over, they began exploding with questions.

“How was your first class, Haruhi?”

“Did you meet anyone new?”

“Was it hard?”

I noticed that none of the questions were aimed towards me, but I brushed it off. They had been friends since high school; I had only known them for a few days.  _ Maybe we’ll get closer as my college life progresses. _

“Elizabeth?”

I turned towards the cool voice. Kyoya. “Yes?” my voice cracked. Of all times, why did it have to crack now? Luck was not finding me today. I didn’t have the packet, now my voice is cracking. I’m like a boy going through puberty.

“Kaoru asked you a question,” he stated, crossing his arms. He seemed a bit more awake than before, but his slightly cold composure remained. “Are you going to answer it?”

I paused before answering. With a question, of course. “What was your question, Kaoru?”

One of the boys looked taken aback before regaining posure. “I asked you how your first class went. Don’t you have that with Kyoya?”

“Yes,” I answered, a bit too quickly for my taste. “It went well. I was a slight bit unprepared for it, but the way the professor treated me, she either didn’t notice or didn’t care.”

The twin nodded. “Maybe we can all walk to class together after lunch. We do have it together, after all.”

What class did we all have together? I did remember Haruhi and I having a class together, but she never said the others were in it, too. “What class was that, again?”

He frowned. “Expository Writing 20. Did you look at your schedule?”

“Yeah, but I was seeing if you were all really in that class. Was that planned, or a happy accident?” I asked, grabbing a tray from the pile. The others followed suit, though Mori carried two trays.

“Planned, of course!” Tamaki grinned, grabbing some fruit off of the salad bar. “And tomorrow at noon, we have our student colloquium with Professor Birch, together!”

I gazed at Haruhi blankly. “Together, again?”

Haruhi just shrugged, grabbing some food off of a nearby cart. “It does seem coincidental. I told them that they shouldn’t just pay for us to all be together in the required courses, but they probably didn’t listen to me.”

“They’re boys, do they ever listen?” I joked lightly, grabbing a meal.

After Hani finally decided what he wanted to eat - Americanized Asian noodles with chicken- we found a few tables to push together in the middle of the cafeteria.

As we began to eat, conversations began between everybody at the table. The twins conversed with Haruhi, Hani conversed with Tamaki, with Mori just humming along to whatever Hani was saying. That left Kyoya, who was sitting across from me, and myself.

“So…” I drawled, picking at my salad. “How’s life in Kyoya’s world?”

“It’s fine,” he replied dryly, picking his hamburger up. He looked at it for a few seconds, then just took a big bite.

“That’s good,” I nodded, looking around. “Do you like the United States so far?”

He took his time thinking of an answer. As I waited, I picked at my salad, then reached for my bottle of water. “It is not what I expected of it, which is not a bad thing.”

“What did you expect of it?” I frowned, dropping my fork.

“I expected it to be bustling with more people, more cultural, more diversity,” he expanded, his eyelids half covering his eyes.

That made me laugh, although quietly. “That’s probably because you’ve only been here, and at one mall. I used to live in Chicago, and there’s a lot of different cultures and diversity there. If you ever go to New York City, there’s even more diversity and more places where culture is bustling.”

His right eyebrow raised slightly. “Is that so? You used to live in Chicago?”

It wasn’t until that moment that I realized all other conversations had ended, and they were all looking at me. I felt heat come to my face instantly. Being such a fair skinned blonde, being red or pink-faced was common, and not flattering. “Yes?”

“You used to live in Chicago? What was it like?” one of the twins asked. I couldn’t tell which one.

What all did they want to know? “Well, what exactly do you want to know?”

“Everything,” the twins answered in harmony, grinning.

“Well,” I hummed, frowning. “I was born in Chicago, lived there almost my whole life. When I chose to go to school here to study medicine, my family moved with me to be closer.”

Hani frowned. “I didn’t know commoners had money to move just like that. Did you, Takashi?”

“No,” the tall boy replied blankly.

“Commoner?” I repeated.

“Yeah, aren’t you a commoner? You’re like Haruhi,” Tamaki stated. “Right?”

I hesitated. “What do you mean by ‘commoner’?”

“Poor, of course!” he smiled. “And you made it here all by yourself! Your family must be proud, Elizabeth!”

I shook my head. “I think you have the wrong impression of me, Tamaki. I wouldn’t really consider myself a… ‘Commoner’, per say.”

His eyes widened. “Really? Why is that? Oh, is that an offensive term?” He suddenly looked sad, maybe even guilty.

Laughing, I shook my head. “No. I’m not really a ‘commoner’. It’s only thanks to my parents that I got into such a prestigious school.”

“Are your parents rich?”

“Uh, yeah, you could say that.”

Suddenly, the boys began to look between each other with thoughtful gazes. Kyoya was the first to look back at me. “What’s your story, Elizabeth?”

I was taken aback. “What do you mean?”

He chuckled. “What is your background? Your interests, family, hobbies.”

That is what began our conversation on my life. I started explaining the life of my late grandfather, how he had a dream to one day be a millionaire. Little did he knew, his hobby of buying old cars, fixing them up and polishing them, then selling them would bring him to become a man of a lot of money. And I mean a lot. Before he turned forty, he had enough money to put many generations of grandchildren through college.

“After Papa died, the business was passed down to my mom. She wasn’t interested, so my dad took over. He had been an employee of Papa since he was a teenager, so it worked out,” I smiled. “So I grew up around the shop, and we never had to move much. It was a bit harder to move the business from Chicago to here, but my dad got it figured out. Most of our business is out of state anyway.”

“That’s your history,” Tamaki said with a slow nod.

Hani finished for him. “What about you?”

“Well… I’m blonde, for starters,” I laughed. “Many people like to point that out. Um… I used to ride horses as a hobby, like every other young girl. I’ve won a few drag races using the shop’s cars. Baking is one of my favorite pastimes, and I also like to knit, but I’m not good at it.” Now that I said everything out loud, it made me realize how much of a boring person I was. Baking and knitting were my favorite things to do? Come on. Why not skydiving?

Oh yeah. That one part where I’m afraid of heights kind of tramples that dream.

Before I knew it, all of the boys and Haruhi were explaining their own pasts. It almost didn’t surprise me to realize that most of them came from very wealthy families. How else would they be able to so easily come to a different country to study?

“My dad’s a cross-dresser,” Haruhi said with a shrug. “Some people think that’s interesting.”

“That is kind of interesting,” I said with a smile. “My old hairdresser in Chicago was a transgender gal. She was amazing.” My father always joked that I attracted the odd crowd, because I was so boring and easy to get along with.

Kyoya was the last to speak. He took his time with his food. “Not that it is of any interest to you, I am the youngest in my family, and least likely to carry on our family’s business.”

That's harsh.

“What’s your family’s business?” I asked curiously, finishing up on my salad.

“Medicine,” he answered shortly, messing with the straw on his drink.


	7. Chapter 7

“If you’re still struggling to understand, just imagine instead of initiating sex, you’re making them a cup of tea,” Professer Birch continued. He was giving us a very tough speech on consent during our student colloquium class. Of course, relating sex to making tea was only natural.

“You say “hey, would you like a cup of tea?” and they go “OMG fuck yes, I would fucking  _ love  _ a cup of tea! Thank you!” then you know they want a cup of tea,” he announced.

_ Did he really just throw out the f bomb just now? Is this what college is like? _

“If you say “hey, would you like a cup of tea?” and they um and ahh and say, “I’m not really sure…” then you can make them a cup of tea or not, but be aware that they might not drink it, and if they don’t drink it then – this is the important bit –  _ don’t make them drink it _ . You can’t blame them for you going to the effort of making the tea on the off-chance they wanted it; you just have to deal with them not drinking it. Just because you made it doesn’t mean you are entitled to watch them drink it.”

“If they say “No thank you” then don’t make them tea. At all. Don’t make them tea, don’t make them drink tea, don’t get annoyed at them for not wanting tea. They just don’t want tea, okay?”

“They might say “Yes please, that’s kind of you” and then when the tea arrives they actually don’t want the tea at all. Sure, that’s kind of annoying as you’ve gone to the effort of making the tea, but they remain under no obligation to drink the tea. They did want tea, now they don’t. Sometimes people change their mind in the time it takes to boil that kettle, brew the tea and add the milk. And it’s ok for people to change their mind, and you are still not entitled to watch them drink it even though you went to the trouble of making it.”

“If they are unconscious, don’t make them tea. Unconscious people don’t want tea and can’t answer the question “do you want tea” because they are  _ unconscious _ .”

“Okay, maybe they were conscious when you asked them if they wanted tea, and they said yes, but in the time it took you to boil that kettle, brew the tea and add the milk they are now unconscious. You should just put the tea down, make sure the unconscious person is safe, and – this is the important bit – don’t make them drink the tea. They said yes then, sure, but unconscious people don’t want tea.”

“If someone said yes to tea, started drinking it, and then passed out before they’d finished it, don’t keep on pouring it down their throat. Take the tea away and make sure they are safe. Because  _ unconscious people don’t want tea _ . Trust me on this.”

“If someone said “yes” to tea around your house last Saturday, that doesn’t mean that they want you to make them tea all the time. They don’t want you to come around unexpectedly to their place and make them tea and force them to drink it going “BUT YOU WANTED TEA LAST WEEK”, or to wake up to find you pouring tea down their throat going “BUT YOU WANTED TEA LAST NIGHT”.”

“Do you think this is a stupid analogy? Yes, you all know this already – of course you wouldn’t force feed someone tea because they said yes to a cup last week. Of COURSE you wouldn’t pour tea down the throat of an unconscious person because they said yes to tea five minutes ago when they were conscious. But if you can understand how completely ludicrous it is to force people to have tea when they don’t want tea, and you are able to understand when people don’t want tea, then how hard is it to understand when it comes to sex?” he finished. It was actually not that hard to pay attention to what he was saying. The twins weren’t being distracting, Kyoya and Tamaki were silent, as was Haruhi, as per usual.

“Whether it’s tea or sex, consent is everything. Any questions?” Professor Birch asked, looking around.

“Yes,” Tamaki said, raising his hand after clearing his throat. “Why are you relating this to tea?”

The professor smiled. “I’m glad you asked, Tamaki.” He placed emphasis on the middle part of his name, ‘tah-MAH-key’, but Tamaki didn’t seem discouraged. “Relating consent to tea makes one realize how idiotic it sounds to force someone to have intercourse with you.”

“Sex,” one of the twins coughed under their breath. 

“I see. It makes a lot of sense, professor,” Tamaki said with a slow grin appearing on his face. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Birch replied. “Any more questions?”

Nobody else had any questions, so he allowed us to leave early. On Tuesdays, we didn’t have any more classes, so we all decided to go to the park. Actually, I take that back- _Tamaki and the twins_ decided that we would go to the park, and everybody else went along. Haruhi commented that she would only go along because there was no need for studying yet.

Tamaki instantly requested that we played what he called ‘commoner games’. The first one he suggested was hide and seek.

“I haven’t played this in a while,” I said, running with Haruhi behind a tree. “Do the Japanese usually play these kinds of games?” I hoped it didn't out as offensive as I thought it did.

She rolled her eyes, but her eyes themselves were warm. “Tamaki likes to play them, so we go along. We’ve played these sorts of games together since my first year of high school.”

“Why do you think that is?” Usually, boys think they’re too old for these games.

Haruhi’s head tilted. “It’s hard to understand without knowing his background.”

“Maybe you could tell me his background so I understand?” I suggested, then held a finger up to my lips. Leaves were rustling around us. “Later,” I mouthed silently.

“Gotcha!”

My scream tore through my throat like a razor. I wasn’t usually one to be so easily scared, but something about being in a new place with new people sent me off the edge. The orange-haired male burst into laughter, rolling around on the ground.

“You should’ve seen your face!” he cried, tears coming out of his eyes.

I gave him the scariest glare I could muster. “Not funny,” I croaked.

“Oh, it was funny!” his twin squealed.

_ No, it really wasn’t that funny to be in pain. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tea analogy came from my sister's college lecture and added bits from https://qz.com/359125/this-delightful-tea-analogy-is-all-you-need-to-know-about-sexual-consent/


	8. Chapter 8

Wednesday classes came and went like a flash. I was done by three o’clock, which was quite alright with me. High school was constant, but college had more breaks and you could relax more. In my humble opinion, college was many times better than high school had been.

My lunch that day was eaten by myself. I cooked in the dorm kitchen on our floor. There was a full kitchen right on our floor, the first floor, and a little living area with a big TV and a couch. The couch faced the kitchen, and there was a loveseat to one side and a rocking chair on the other side. Behind the rocking chair was the big flat screen TV. Everything there was pretty new. There was a larger lounge in one of the other buildings, but that one was used by everybody; not just by people in our apartment.

“Why are you eating so late?”

The voice made me jump. It was Kyoya. “Would you please stop sneaking up on me?”

“I asked you a question,” he said with the smallest hint of a smile.

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. “I was studying earlier when you guys had lunch, but the lunch hall is closed now. It’s not a bad thing. This is cheaper.”

“I wouldn’t have expected you to be the frugal type,” he commented, taking a careful seat on the couch. “Being from your background.”

I raised an eyebrow, gazing over at him. “Are you judging me?”

“I was observing,” he corrected, taking out his laptop. “Do you have a problem with that?”

“I don’t if you do it quietly,” I replied, opening a red package of Ramen noodles. “Is that a problem?”

“Not at all,” he said simply, staring at the laptop’s bright screen. The couch he sat in faced me, so I had no idea what he was typing, though one could only assume it was something to do with his classes.

A familiar noise started to emit from my laptop on the counter. I turned, then grinned. I clicked on the space bar. “Hey!”

“Hey, girl!” My best friend, Samantha Richards, greeted me with a wide grin on the screen. “How’s Harvard treatin’ ya? Make any new friends to replace me yet?”

I laughed, adding the special flavoring packet, among other things. “Maybe I have. You would never know.”

“I’m going to pretend that I didn’t hear that,” she announced. Her eyes were searching the room, then she frowned. “Who’s that guy with you?”

“He’s-” I started.

She cut me off promptly. “Do you already have a boyfriend? Is that him? He’s hot! Girl, I didn’t think you’d get one so quickly!”

As soon as she finished her sentences, my face began to heat up. No doubt, in seconds I was as red as a cherry. “Sam… He’s not my boyfriend.”

“Well, why  _ not _ ?”

I refused to look behind me, where Kyoya sat. I could feel his eyes burning into the back of my skull. This was so embarrassing. It was only my first week, and Sam already made assumptions that could possibly ruin my friendships. “Uh…”

Before I could realize what was happening, I felt a presence behind me. “Pleased to meet you, Samantha,” Kyoya greeted, oddly in a warm tone. “My name is Kyoya.”

Sam wasted no time giving out her best wolf whistle. “Whoo-wee. Nice to meet you. You’re hot.”

He didn’t seem phased. “Thank you. I am not Elizabeth’s boyfriend, if that’s what you were assuming.”

“Oh. Well, you should be. Because you’re really hot. Or I’m single, actually, so-” she began. Sam was not the most subtle of people, and wanted to make her point known.

“Okay, Sam, time to say goodbye,” I interrupted, clicking out of the call. I turned away from Kyoya, putting my noodles into a bowl. “I think I’m going to go eat in my room.”

Kyoya paused. “I wouldn’t advise that.”

“Why not?” I asked, grabbing a fork.

He chuckled. It wasn’t something I was used to hearing from him. “Haruhi and Tamaki are currently preparing tea. I don’t believe you wish to witness that.”

My face began to heat up again. “Oh goodness. Uh, yeah, I’ll just… Stay in here then, I guess.” Making tea?

So he does have a sense of humor.

~

There was a week before midterm exams began, it was the middle of October. As I explained the way college students did things in America, which was odd because I was a first time college student in America as well.

“If you guys want, I know my sister and her friends took a trip every time that they had a break,” I said to them. We were all sitting in that lounge. Hikaru and Kaoru were on the floor, against the wall. Mori and Hani were in the loveseat. Kyoya, Haruhi, and Tamaki had the couch filled up while I was seated at the counter. Well, I was sitting on the counter. But it’s like the same thing.

Tamaki perked up instantly. “A trip? Trips to where?”

“Oh, I don’t know… I know she and her friends went to Mount Rushmore, New York City, they even went to Vegas once they were all twenty-one,” I said with a shrug. “It was good bonding for them all. If you want, I could help plan-”

“Oh, where should we go? We only have a week to plan!” Tamaki announced, throwing his arms up in the air. “Haruhi, where would you like to go?”

The brown haired girl stared at him blankly. “I don’t really think a trip in the middle of college would benefit us. Shouldn’t we be studying?”

I held a hand up. “Midterms will be over, and we won’t have to study until semester exams come. It would be the perfect time to start a vacation.”

She seemed to consider this for a moment, then shook her head. “No. We can’t. We’re college students; we don’t have the money to be wasting.”

“A little vacation does sound fun,” Hani chirped happily, grinning up at Mori. “Doesn’t it sound like fun, Takashi?”

“Yeah.”

“Then it’s settled!” Tamaki declared, standing up. “We will take a vacation!”

I looked at Haruhi. “I’ll pay for you, if money is what you’re worried about. It’s really no trouble. It’ll only be a few days.”

She sighed, looking up at me. “How long will our break be?”

“We could fly out Wednesday night, after classes end, and be back Sunday night, so we can at least sleep in our own beds before Monday classes begin,” I told her. “But that’s more than a week away.”

Tamaki had been thinking out loud for a few minutes before he finally said, “How about we take trips every break? We could do a big trip for summer vacation, in the beginning!”

Oh goodness. What have I started?

~

Midterm exams came and went, as fast as lighting. Tamaki and myself took to planning the trip. With everyone else’s votes, we decided on going to the Mall of America. It would be bustling with people of every culture, without being too terribly crowded and hard to keep up with. It was near an airport, and there were over fifty hotels in that area.

We chose a nice hotel, though the sleeping arrangement would be a bit less than ideal. After discussion, the boys, Haruhi, and myself decided that four rooms with two people in each room would be the best. At first, I assumed our sleeping arrangement would be the same as it was in the dorms. Haruhi with me, Tamaki with Kyoya, Hikaru with Kaoru, and Mori with Hani.

Haruhi slowly said to me during planning, “I think I’ll room with Tamaki. It’ll make Kyoya easier to deal with.”

That surely messed things up, though I tried not to show it. “Who am I going to room with, then?”

“Kyoya. Don’t worry, he’s harmless.”

After what happened in the lounge on the first week, things had been a bit awkward on my side of Kyoya and I’s friendship. At first, he seemed to be a bit odd of a man. He was quiet, only stating a smart remark every now and then, though it was never out of anger when he did it. He found a lot of things to be amusing, the culture in the United States being one of those amusing things. He didn’t bat an eye at me, though I was sure he noticed me. I noticed him.

Yes, we did talk every now and then, but going from barely talking to rooming with the guy? Come on, that’s not ideal for anybody. He no doubt felt the same, though when the news was brought to him, he didn’t refuse.

“Don’t wake me up,” was all that he said to me as we packed.

I nodded, shoving a few shirts in my bag. “Okay. Are you a heavy sleeper or something?”

“No, but I am not a pleasant waker.”

That was not unexpected.


	9. Chapter 9

“Delta gate 9A to Minneapolis is beginning to load. First class, proceed to line up,” the speaker boomed. The woman speaking was wearing a tight red dress, black heels, and her hair was up in a tight ballerina bun.

Tamaki bounced up out of his seat, dropping his cell phone. “That’s us!” he declared, pointing towards the gate. Taking hold of Haruhi’s hand, he dragged her along to the front desk. Everybody else followed.

Our tickets were scanned, and with my backpack in hand, we all boarded onto the plane. The first class seats were large, spaced out, and the air seemed less of a bother than it had even in the airport. It was easier to breathe in.

“Oh  _ wow _ !” Hani said, looking around, his eyes wide. “It’s roomier than I thought it would be! Don’t you think, Takashi?”

“Yeah,” the tall man said shortly, looking around. The two took seats behind where Kyoya and myself were sitting. Tamaki and Haruhi sat in the seats across from us, and the twins sat behind them.

The two orange-haired boys were chatting amongst themselves, and glanced over at me from time to time.

It made me laugh. “Take a picture,” I said. “It’ll last longer.” That was one of the saying I heard at college, and it sounded cool, right?

The one I swore was Hikaru, though I wasn’t sure, stuck his tongue out at me. “That was distasteful.”

“No, what’s distasteful is you looking at me constantly and discussing me to your twin brother when I’m right here,” I said, crossing my arms. “It’s rude.”

He glanced at me for a few seconds, then snickered and turned back to his twin, mumbling something. The one I swore was Hikaru was sitting near the aisle, with Kaoru in the window seat.

“I’ll probably sleep the entire way, just so you know,” I told Kyoya. “That’s why I took the window seat, so you don’t have the discomfort of being my pillow.”

He frowned. “Don’t they give you pillows on first class?”

“Yes, but they’re never that comfortable,” I said with a simple shrug, pulling out my smartphone and headphones. “I’ll probably just zone you out, if you don’t mind.”

He shook his head. “Not at all.”

The plane ride was uneventful. It was three hours long, and we got served a meal at about seven-thirty. It wasn’t vegetarian, so I politely declined, even though I had deliberately asked for a meatless meal when my ticket was purchased. I handed the meat portion off to the twins, who gladly shared it as I ate the baby carrots and fruit.

If I'm going to take a detour from my vegetarian-ness, it's definitely not going to be plane food. Not even first class.

The first hour was spent sleeping, and that was before dinner was served. Kyoya was quiet the entire time, typing things on his laptop, though the brightness was so low that it hurt my eyes to try to see what he was doing.

Tamaki and Haruhi were busy either chatting happily or arguing about something during the flight, and that was completely expected. They were entertaining to listen to, when I wasn’t paying attention to my music.

The plane landed at eight Eastern time, so it was only seven in Central time, which was the time zone we were now in. I stretched as the unbuckle lights came on, and as soon as the plane had stopped, everybody got up to get their carry-ons.

The ride to the hotel was uneventful, as everybody was too tired to really do anything drastic besides sleep on everybody else. As soon as we checked into our rooms, I wasted no time jumping into the shower. Flights and airports, even first class flights, made me feel like trash.

When I got out of the shower, I threw my hair in a tight bun so that I would get beachy waves- as opposed to the usual kinky curls that I was ‘blessed’ with- for the following day at the mall.

As I walked out of the bathroom, I noticed that there was only a lamp light on, so the room was dim. I had on short fuzzy pajama pants and a big T-shirt that had my family company’s logo. No bra. I hadn’t even remembered that I was rooming with a guy.

No way am I sleeping in a bra, though. Let’s just pray that I’m not that cold, or else somebody’s eye will probably get poked out.

Thankfully, the beds were separate. Kyoya was reading a book, not yet under the covers. He was shirtless, and wearing just a pair of sweatpants and dark socks. His hair looked less under control than usual, though it wasn’t a bad look. It was the ‘I know and I don’t care’ kind of guy look. Though it was opposite of his personality, it suited him wonderfully.

I sat down on the edge of my bed, facing the wall. His bed was more towards the window. “What are you reading?” I asked, looking through my backpack for my phone charger.

“Plato’s  _ The Republic _ ,” he answered as he licked one of his fingers and turned the page. “In English, mind you. It looks very different than in Japanese.”

It made me laugh. Of course it looked different. It was in a different language. “Yeah. Is it easier to understand in Japanese?”

“Naturally, but the best way to learn a language is to immerse yourself in it completely,” he replied. “So I plan on doing just that.”

“Good plan, good plan. What time did Tamaki said we were leaving tomorrow?”

He cringed. “Eight in the morning, at the latest.”

I frowned. “So much for a relaxing little vacation. He should at least let us sleep in until nine or something.”

“My thoughts exactly,” he nodded, keeping his eyes glued to the book.

It seemed like he wasn’t in the mood for small talk, so I dropped the subject. “I’m gonna set my alarm for six-thirty, alright?”

“Fine. Good night, Elizabeth.”

“ ‘night, Kyoya.”

After lying in bed silently for a few hours, I finally turned and noticed that he was still reading the book with a smaller light on. I sighed. “No wonder you hate getting up early. You should really go to bed.”

Kyoya frowned. “I thought you were sleeping.”

“I tried, but it’s hard to do when there’s a blinding light in the room and someone else is awake. Want me to sing you a lullaby?” I teased.

“No, I am fine. Good night. Again,” he said with the smallest hint of a sigh.

_ Hopefully for the last time. _


	10. Chapter 10

My alarm clock, as it turned out, wasn’t needed at all. Before it was even suppose to go off, I was woken up by screaming in the hallway, by Tamaki. “Get up, today’s the day!” he squealed, banking on doors.

“Oh bother..” I muttered, plunging my face further into the pillow.

The Mall of America was big, though for some odd reason, I had expected it to be bigger. I had never gone, and based on other people’s stories about it- Sam’s, mostly- I thought it was larger than it really was. It was still huge, but not as spread out as I thought it would have been. It was just... Tall. 

“Let’s go over there! The map says that there’s a candy store!” Hani said gleefully, tugging at Mori’s arm.

The tall man looked down at him. “Okay,” he said. “But don’t get too much. You still have sweets left over from our last mall trip.”

Giving him the best puppy dog eyes, the two walked together to the candy store. It was called Candyland, and there was no question why. The store was huge, bigger than my old school’s gymnasium.

I glanced back at the rest of ‘the crew’, as I called them. “Are you guys going to go to the candy store, too? We should probably stay together.” There were so many people, even though it was the middle of a weekday in October. The crowd was almost wall to wall, especially near the amusement park inside.

“Nah,” one of the twins replied with a shrug.

“We don’t really want candy. American candy is too sweet for us,” the other added. I really should try to tell them apart better, but as far as I knew, Haruhi was the only one that could do that. 

Looking up, I realized that there were three levels above us. It made me feel a bit sick to my stomach, though I didn’t say anything. After all, it had been fully my idea to go here. “Do you think they’ll be okay on their own?” I asked.

The twins both nodded. “Yeah, they can handle themselves, probably better than you would think.”

“Yeah, Mori does kind of look like he’d be good at fighting other people off if it was needed,” I nodded thoughtfully. 

Hikaru and Kaoru glanced between each other and simply shrugged.

Before I knew it, Tamaki was dragging Haruhi along with him, leaving the twins, Kyoya, and myself. The twins soon decided where they wanted to go, and that left just me and Kyoya.

I frowned up at the tall guy. “Do you ever feel like you’re just like a.. Seventh wheel, or something?”

Kyoya shrugged. “Lately, it seems that I am the seventh wheel.”

“Lord knows what would have happened if I hadn’t come along,” I laughed, pushing on his arm playfully. The guy needed to loosen up, in the most positive and respectful way possible. “Come on, let’s go do some shopping.”

“If I must.”

Dragging him along was the easy part, helping him enjoy the trip was the hard part. It didn’t seem like he thought the trip was worthwhile, at least not yet.

“You need to learn to have fun,” I declared, pulling him towards a Disney-themed store.

Kyoya grumbled something, but it was too quiet for me to hear. I ignored him, and pulled him towards one of the staff.

“Hey, it’s his birthday, and it’s his first time here,” I said, pointing to him. “Is there something you do for birthdays?”

The girl I had spoken to was wearing colorful clothing, and in her hair was a Mickey Mouse ear headband. “Of course! Come right this way.”

He glared down at me. “I’d rather not-”

“Oh, come on, lighten up, Mr. Poopy-Pants,” I said, dragging him again to the front of the store. “Stand right there.”

As if he realized that there was no way out of this, he stood on the mark as lights began to flash. Music played loudly, and all of the staff joined together in a very obnoxious version of the Happy Birthday song. He wouldn’t stop glaring at me, though I wasn’t going to stop grinning.

_ The guy just needs to lighten up, have some fun, or else this vacation is a waste. Everybody else is having fun; why can’t he? _

As soon as they were done, he got a ‘Birthday Boy’ crown and a plastic bag full of Disney-themed treats. He thanked them through clenched teeth, and pulled me out of the store as quickly as he could.

“Wow, look at this free stuff we just got!” 

“You’re horrible.”

“Untwist your panties, grannie.”

It didn’t take as much effort to drag him to any more stores. He agreed to go along willingly as long as I didn’t say that it was his birthday. I agreed, and he seemed to begin to enjoy himself a few hours in. We were shopping at Macy’s, where I suggested he get his makeup done.

“You can wash it right off. Besides, don’t you want to know what you’d look like if you were a girl?” I asked, sitting him down at a makeup station at a M.A.C. counter.

“I already know, if that’s what you’re wondering. No, I don’t have any pictures.” His voice was flat, but was that a smile I was detecting?

“Too bad.” I called over a makeup artist and requested that he do his makeup. “Natural, but still obvious that he has something on. Is that doable?”

The man, whose face and smokey eye looked positively flawless, grinned. “Of course.” He had a thick accent of some kind, though I couldn’t tell. He had a blue shimmery star sticker on his right temple.

Just thirty minutes later, both Kyoya and I had makeup on. He seemed slightly irritated, but he didn’t voice it too much. He made a beautiful feminine man.

We all met up for lunch at a bar and grill in the mall. It was busy, but Tamaki managed to charm the manager into getting us seats sooner. We sat at two different booths, since there weren’t enough free tables.

Haruhi sat beside me, and across from us sat Kyoya and Tamaki. The twins sat in the booth behind us, with Mori and Hani across from them.

It took no time for Tamaki to notice that Kyoya had makeup on. “Kyoya, what are you wearing?” he asked.

Kyoya wasted no time giving me a look before answering. “I was tricked into getting my makeup done.”

“Well, your skin looks great!” Tamaki grinned.

After the meal, we split up again, though I was with Haruhi this time. We wandered into Spencer’s, a store that my parents forbade me from going into until I was eighteen. It had a lot of sex toys, but Haruhi found it hilarious. She ended up buying some select items, and hid them in her bag so the boys wouldn’t see.

The day went by so fast, and we met up a few more times with the guys in order to go to some stores together. We planned on going to the amusement park in the mall the next day, and sticking together the whole time.

Who knows how well that’ll work out? I sure didn’t. I just hoped Kyoya would keep an open mind. He seemed more uptight than Mori.


	11. Chapter 11

“Because we’re up North, the meat is better at places like this,” I told the guys, opening up a large menu. “So everything here is good.” Even though I didn’t eat meat often, I knew they’d appreciate how good the meat was in restaurants like Famous Dave’s. I sure was going to indulge myself.

“What is this?” Haruhi asked, pointing towards a picture.

I nodded. “Those are barbeque ribs. They’re suppose to be amazing here, though since you guys haven’t had any of the sauces here, it’ll be hard for you to try to guess what you’d like. Would you be interested in a sauce sampler, with potato chips?”

After receiving an array of yes answers, we received our drinks and I ordered the sampler tray. We were all sitting at a long table, all together, as opposed to our little arrangement during lunch while were were at the mall.

Tamaki took a sip of his drink, a brown soda. “Very sweet,” he commented.

Hani grinned and nodded. “Yeah, it is!”

I frowned, looking between them. “Don’t you have soda in Japan?”

“Yes, but they don’t taste like this. It’s amazing!”

It made me laugh. “You think diabetes tastes amazing? That’s news to me.” When I was younger, I had been addicted to soda and all things sweet. “I don’t drink it that much.”

“You don’t drink soda, you say, and you’re vegetarian. How do you know about this place having good meat, then? If you don’t mind me asking,” Haruhi said. It was uncanny how much it sounded like something I would say.

I shrugged. “I wasn’t always vegetarian. It was a choice I made when I was fifteen, and so far, it’s worked well. I do still eat meat, just not as much as I used to.”

“What made you decide to go vegetarian?” Kyoya asked, taking a sip of his water.

“We read a book in my language class that explained how animals were treated and killed in slaughterhouses. I hated it, and vowed never to eat meat again. Though I’ll admit, a few times, I’ve caved and ate something that had meat. Like a pork chop, or a hamburger, or steak. Or bacon. But I try not to.” I was really a horrible vegetarian. It was probably more like someone who only ate the good meat.

“Interesting,” he said.

“Are you going to cave right now and eat some meat?” one of the twins, the one with the lighter voice, asked.

Humming, I just shrugged again. “I definitely might. It’ll be the first time in a year.. But I might..”

By the time our waitress came back with our sampler, everybody knew what they were going to order. We ordered, and I ended up being 'pressured' into getting meat. I settled for a pick two, with chicken tenders and brisket. Just thinking about it made my mouth water.

While we waited for our food, I noticed that the twins were playing with a children’s menu and little crayons. They were trying to figure out how to play the games. How hard did they seem to foreign people?

“You draw a single line in each turn, you take turns, and then if you complete a box, you write your first initial and are allowed to make another line,” I explained, looking at the game they were trying to figure out.

“Ohh… It should say that, then! It’s a kids’ game?”

“Yeah,” I snickered.

Five minutes passed, and most of us had drank most- if not all- of our drinks. I looked around for our waitress. She was nowhere in sight.

Kyoya, put his hand down on the table. “Is our food going to be here soon? I need my drink refilled.”

“Me, too,” Hani said, nodding.

“I don’t know where she is,” I said with a frown, turning in my seat. The dark haired waitress was nowhere to be seen. Time drifted passed, and soon enough, the waitress came back with all of our food.

The waitress set our food down, wished us a good meal, and left. It was only a few seconds before we realized that none of us had silverware.

“How are we supposed to eat this? Haruhi, do commoners eat this type of food with their hands often?” Tamaki asked, nudging the girl.

“No, they usually don’t. Not this kind of food,” she shook her head, looking at me. “Do they?”

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “Maybe she just forgot.” Even though I was irritated, it had been a long wait for our food and we couldn’t even eat it, I tried not to show it too much. They seemed antsy enough.

When I found her again, I flagged her down with my hand. “Hey, could you get us silverware? Our food is getting cold.”

“Sure thing,” she replied, then wandered off to the complete other side of the restaurant.

I turned back to the table with a nervous smile. “She’s getting it.”

“That certainly isn’t the direction to the front desk, where the silverware is,” Kyoya stated, a slight bite to his tone. “Should I go point her in the right direction?”

“No,” I said quickly. “It’ll be fine. She probably has other tables to wait on.”

As it turned out, she did, but they were all in our area. There was a group next to us, three guys and two girls, all in leather jackets. It seemed that our waitress wasn’t just skimping out on our dining experience. It was quite the bonding moment.

Finally, Kyoya stood up. “I’m going to find her. I’m tired of waiting for poor service,” he said, setting his napkin down on the table. “Excuse me.”

Sighing, I stood up. “I’ll come with.” There was no need for him to get bothered by a poorly paid waitress who was probably stressed out as it was.

Instead of finding the waitress, we found the manager. After explaining our situation, he brought us silverware, and apologized numerous times. The food was delicious, though a bit less warm that I would have liked. The meal ended soon enough, and the waitress appeared to give us our bill. There was a smiley face written on it.

“Oh my goodness,” I groaned. “She put a smiley face on it.”

“Why does that matter?” Tamaki tilted his head.

“Studies show that if a waitress puts a smiley face on the bill, they’ll get a better tip,” I explained. “I’ll bet my life that is what she is aiming for. No way in hell.” I got up, taking a last sip of water. “Come on, I’ll take the bill this time.”

The motley crew followed me to the front desk, where I made a point to pay the manager right in front of the waitress. I gave him the usual twenty percent tip, thanked him for the meal, and left promptly. On the bus ride home, all they talked about was the service we received.

“Is that kind of thing common here?” Haruhi asked.

“No, it usually isn’t. But it’s always the bad experiences that get noticed, and not the good ones,” I said. “The bad always seems to overshadow the good. Do you think I handled it okay?”

“Better than him. Kyoya looked like he wanted to kill her.” She let out a soft laugh.

_ Let’s hope his majesty is in a better mood tomorrow. _


	12. Chapter 12

The remainder of the trip went off without a hitch. The worst part, by far, was the service we received at that restaurant. After that, everything was smooth sailing. Haruhi began to have a good time, forgetting about the money, and Kyoya got more sleep as Tamaki didn’t wake us up earlier than seven.

We ended up leaving a bit sooner than we planned, because there wasn’t much else for us to do at the mall. Yes, it was big, but it wasn’t “Oh I’m gonna spend three whole days here!” big. It was maybe “I’m gonna spend two whole days here!” big, and that was about it. There was a flight on Saturday that took off at noon, and that gave us plenty of time to get packed up. We were back in Massachusetts by four, and back at the school by five.

As I unpacked my bag, I smiled. We had bought so much, but so much of it wouldn’t have fit in any of our bags, so I advised everybody to ship their things to the school. It would all be there by Wednesday, if nothing got backordered. Wednesday couldn’t come soon enough.

“Well, that was fun,” Haruhi said, stuffing some of her clothes back into the small dorm dresser. “I guess it was nice to take a break, even after only half a semester of classes.”

“Of course,” I replied. It didn’t take long to put all of our things, and our souvenirs. I got a fair few, though not near as much as the boys had gotten, specifically Tamaki. He had enough to give to all the soldiers of the world, and then some.

~

Monday came all too soon, after a very uneventful end of the weekend. I spent a majority of my time reading, and Haruhi did the same. She was not a bad roommate at all. We had a lot of respect for one another, and when quiet time was needed, it was easily given. As long as the boys didn’t interrupt.

I had gotten a routine down for my eight o’clock philosophy. I would wash my hair the night before, so I didn’t have to shower in the morning, and braid my hair so it wouldn’t be full of frizz. It would lose curl because of the braid, but it had controlled ‘waves’, so I let it slide. I set my outfit out the night before, and always made sure nothing was form fitting so I didn’t have to suck in my gut the entire time as to not look pudgy.

The struggle is real.

“Views of religion are different for every person, even of the same religion. I’m going to ask you to turn to the person next to you and discuss religion for the rest of class,” Sara said, ending her sentence with a dramatic yawn. Her hair wasn’t spiked up like it usually was, and she didn’t have makeup on either.

I turned to my left, only to realize that the person who usually sat next to me was gone. To my right sat Kyoya, and he didn’t have his usual partner on his right. “Looks like we should talk religion.”

“I see,” he said with a light hum and a nod of a his head. “You begin.”

“Well,” I said slowly, thinking quickly. “I’m still deciding on my religion. My parents and my family are Christian, but I’m just not sure. I’ve been deciding since high school.”

“I see,” he repeated. “I’m what you would call an Atheist.”

Nodding, I smiled. “Yeah, I could have guessed that.”

His head tilted.

“You just seem more like the logical sort of person is all.”

“Ah,” he said. “Religion is an odd subject to speak of. In Japan, the popular choice of religion is Shinto.”

“I’ve never heard of that,” I noted. “What are the main points?”

Towards the end of our class, I realized how calm and collect Kyoya was as a person. The only other person I knew as that calm and collect had been an old friend in high school, but he passed away after a car accident. People are never that way on the inside. It was almost like there was a wall built up inside of him, and I had broken walls down before. Kyoya’s walls would be no different.

That almost makes me sound like a terrible person, breaking down internal walls. It’s not that I do it for fun, but in order to get to know someone inside, you have to let them put their walls down. Even if that means that you have to help them break them down.

Class was dismissed early, so Kyoya and I decided to walk back to our dorms together. It was only right, since we were going to basically the same place.

“So, what’s your story, Kyoya?”

“What do you mean?”

I smiled. “Isn’t that what you guys asked me when you first met me? I never got to hear your story.”

He looked ahead, and a bit up. “There’s not much to know.”

“Oh, sure there is. How about this. I’ll say something about myself that not many people know, then you’ll say something, and then we’ll go from there. Kay?”

“You are very persistent. Very well.” It was almost sarcasm. I hadn’t even talked that much, but he called me persistent?

I hummed. “Alright then. When I was younger, I owned a horse named Lucky Star. He was huge, but he was my first best friend.” It was a tender memory of Lucky Star. I had gotten him for my fifth birthday, when he was just a baby. He was mine until I turned ten. That was when my parents decided I wasn’t responsible enough for a horse; as if I was less responsible when I had been five. I never saw him again.

Kyoya’s expression shifted as his pace slowed. Thank the high powers for that, he walked much too fast for my short legs. “Is that not a well known fact?”

“You didn’t know it, so I would say so. Or did you know it?”

“I might have.”

“Are you some sort of stalker that I should be worried about?”

He chuckled. “Not at all. I’ll go now, I guess. I have two older brothers and one older sister.”

How vague. “What ages are they? Or, actually, how much older are they than you?”

“The eldest, Yuuichi, is thirteen or so years older than I am. Akito, the second eldest, is only eleven or twelve years older than I. I would assume eleven, because he just finished medical school while I was just finishing middle school.”

He didn't know their exact age differences? “What’s your sister’s name? What’s she like?”

“Fuyumi?” He smiled. Something about his computer got happier somehow at the mention of his sister. “She just got married, I believe. She is persistent, like you, and has a good heart. She’s about ten years older than I. She is probably who I miss the most in Japan.”

As we approached our dorm building, I sighed and rubbed my arms. It seemed to get colder by the second. “It’s definitely autumn here.”

Kyoya looked down at me slowly and frowned. “It is. What makes you say that?”

“It’s so cold. I hate cold weather.”

“Why is that?”

He asks a lot of questions, and he claims that I am the persistent one. “If it’s too cold out, you can’t be outside and do anything. It’s harder to enjoy the scenery and nature if it’s too cold out. Spring has to be the best season.”

Kyoya stopped walking, and looked up right before we walked inside our building. When I asked what he was doing, he just shook his head and walked inside. 


	13. Chapter 13

Although it took me a while, I finally figured out how to get to the roof of the dorm building. The roof was flat, like most school roofs are, and had a few ventilation systems and heaters and air conditioners, but for the most part, the surface was flat and untouched. The surface itself was a dark rock, a bit jagged, though when I walked barefoot through it, it didn’t bother me.

It was perfect.

Nights were cold, and cool on the better nights, so when I went up to the roof, I always had to take a jacket. I would leave after Haruhi went to sleep, so I wouldn’t disturb or worry her and keep her up.

About a week after we came back from Minnesota was when I figured out how to get up there. There was a small closet on the top floor of dorms, and if you walked past all the cleaning equipment, you would find the stairway. When I first found it, I grinned with delight. My nights were about to get very interesting.

Ever since I was a little girl, I had been getting a pit in my stomach after thinking of what the future held for me. Therapists told me that I had a condition called chronophobia. It was more widespread than many people realized, but for children, it was not very common. While other girls fantasized about their future husbands and weddings and having kids in the future, I worried about the future itself. What did it hold for me? How was I going to make it there? As a little girl, those thoughts terrified me.

Looking back, I realize how far I have come from that. Those fears were irrational, though almost all phobias are, at least to people who lack them.

Another fear that I had was of the universe. It sounded odd, to have a fear of the universe, but the kicker is this; the universe in whole will never be explored. We will never know everything that is out there, never see everything, because the universe around us is never ending. It’s a terrifying thought. What was funny about that fear, though, was that ever since I was a little girl with chronophobia, I had a passion for spending my nights looking up at the stars in peace. College wasn’t going to change that.

I had been going up to the rooftop at night for about two weeks when one night, there was somebody up there already. I stopped, frozen. Who was up here? What was he doing?

The boy, when he saw me, jumped as well. “Who are you?” he asked, getting up quickly. “I swear, if I’m not suppose to be up here-”

“Calm down, calm down,” I said, walking closer slowly. I didn’t think I had ever seen this boy before. “I don’t think there’s a rule about not being up here.”

The boy nodded. “I didn’t think there was, either… Who are you?” he asked again.

Yawning, I just shrugged. It was the strangest meeting I had ever had. “I’m Elizabeth Hawthorne. Who are you?”

“I’m Mark Johnson. Are you here for the stars too?”

It wasn’t clear to me back then, but it was the start of a beautiful friendship.

~

The next morning, as soon as the sun began to rise, I walked down to my room. I had spent the entire night up on the roof with Mark. He was the most interesting person I had ever met.

When I opened the door of Haruhi and I’s dorm room, I was surprised to see all of the boys. My eyes widened. “What?”

“Where were you last night?” Tamaki asked, crossing his arms. “Haruhi had no idea! I was going to call campus security.”

I stammered. “I-I was just up on the roof.” Did he think he was my father or something? Even my father wouldn’t have cared if I was on the roof for the night, though. He knew I liked it up there.

“Well, why were you on the roof?” he demanded.

“None of your business.” The whole zero-sleep was starting to get to me. Even I was offended by my own tone.

Tamaki opened his mouth, but closed it quickly and looked behind me.

“Elizabeth?”

I turned around quickly. It was Mark. “Oh, hi, Mark,” I said carefully.

Mark brushed his hair back with his fingers. He had such pretty hair. “You forgot your jacket.” He held up the purple piece of clothing.

I snatched it away, thanking him. When I turned back to the boys and Haruhi, I was surprised to see the looks on their faces. “What?”

As soon as Mark had left, Tamaki began shooting questions my way. I decided it was in my best interest to ignore him. All I heard was something about making tea.

~

Mark Johnson was in one of my Wednesday classes. He sat near the back most of the time, but that week, he made the decision to sit next to me. Now that I could see clearly, he had the most beautiful green eyes.

“Is he very nice?”

“Oh yes,” I nodded, folding up one of my shirts. Haruhi was sitting on her loft bed, looking down at me. “He’s never said a harsh word to anybody, as far as I know. Do you have any classes with him?”

Haruhi shook her head. “No. I don’t think he has any classes with me at all. He’s probably not a law major.”

“True. He’s just really interested in medicine and culinary.” I did love a man that cooked well. It was definitely one of the things that attracted me the most, for the oddest reasons. “Don’t you think he has really pretty eyes?”

She gave me a blank look. “I really haven’t looked at his eyes. I’m not so much for green eyes, personally.”

Without thinking, I let out a light sigh. “I think they’re beautiful.” No doubt in my mind, I had a serious crush on this guy. Where had he been all my life?


	14. Chapter 14

Kyoya began to avoid me after he met Mark. It was surprising to me, because he had become like a brother or a very close friend, but as soon as I talked to another guy that I had a liking for, he avoided me. It confused me to absolutely no end.

It was a few weeks until I finally caved and sat next to him during our morning philosophy class. I was sick of him giving me the cold shoulder.

“Why are you ignoring me?” I asked, tapping on his shoulder.

“I am not ignoring you.” Kyoya said, pulling away from me.

“Yes you are,” I frowned.

“No, I am giving you space,” he replied flatly, opening his black laptop.

His words created question marks inside of my mind. “Why do you think I need space?”

“We’ve gotten close rather quickly, don’t you think?” he asked, but something told me that wasn’t it. He was lying through his teeth. “It likely isn’t healthy.”

I gave him a blank look. “You aren’t making any sense, Kyoya. What are you trying to say?” 

“I was just thinking that perhaps our friendship has become a bit oppressive.”

I forced his laptop shut. “That doesn’t mean you have to back away. There’s nothing bad about having new friends. Is that what you’re afraid of? Having a close female friend or something?”

He looked up into my eyes with a serious face. “I’m not afraid of making new friends if that’s what you’re implying,” he said flatly, opening his laptop again. “It just seems that there is so much more to your life that you have been putting off for my sake, and I cannot allow that.”

I took his words with a grain of salt. “I’m not putting off my life for your sake. Why would you even think that? If anything, my life is changing, but that’s okay. I’m in college. It happens! So why are you distancing yourself from me? And don’t lie to me.” There was never any point in being foggy about your words. My philosophy was to be cut and dry, and if you can’t handle the heat, get out of the kitchen. The important part was that it made sense to me.

Without speaking, Kyoya slowly rose from his seat and walked to the other side of the room. I could almost feel the steam coming out of my ears. What the hell was wrong with him?

~

“He’s so… Infuriating!” I growled, throwing my books on my bed.

Haruhi poked her head out from her loft bed. “Who are you talking about?”

“Kyoya. He’s such an ass!”

She sighed. “What did he do?” She didn’t look surprised, just maybe exhausted.

“Apparently, he thinks that our friendship is oppressive and he thinks that we need our space, me in particular. I don’t understand it. Men are stupid. Who is he to say what I need?”

Haruhi slowly climbed down from her loft. “You know, he has seemed a bit tense lately, but that’s because of what’s going on back in Japan. He has his reasons to be uneasy.”

I crossed my arms with a huff. “Yeah? That’s no excuse to be a complete ass.” I flipped on my wax warmer. The only way to calm down was the sweet aroma of French vanilla and chocolate.

“Don’t be too upset with him, though, Elizabeth,” she said lightly. “He’s going through some hard times, things that you don’t know about, and maybe you never will know about it. Just be lenient.”

Even for foreigners, their English easily exceeded my own. It was interesting, in it’s own way.


	15. Chapter 15

“I just can’t believe him!” I continued, throwing my arms about. Mark sat in front of me on his bed, listening as his hands held up his head. “He was such a.. A jerk! A real-”

“Bastard?” he guessed, tilting his head. The light overhead hit his eyes just right, making them sparkle in the most amazing of ways. Today, he had his hair spiked up.

I snapped my fingers, then pointed to him. “Exactly. It’s as if he lacks any sort of conscience or heart… Do you think I’m overreacting?”

Mark shook his head. “Of course not.”

That night, I decided I didn’t want to chance facing Kyoya in the halls or even inside of my and Haruhi’s dorm room, so I stayed with Mark and his roommate, Stan. Stan was taller than Mark by about six or so inches. He was part of the basketball team, naturally, and was very refined and clean-cut. Stan wasn’t ideal to be sharing a room with at night, though. He had uncontrollable gas.

~

Before I knew it, four weeks had passed since Kyoya had decided to stop talking to me, and it was Thanksgiving break. My mom had called me the week earlier to ask if I was coming over, and if I was going to bring friends back with me.

“You know, some kids don’t have a loving family to come back to,” she said to me seriously over the phone, water running in the background. “We have plenty of room, and there is always a ton of food leftover. Not that I’m complaining.”

Haruhi wasn’t in the room, so I was free to talk about whatever. “I’ll say something to my friends. Most of them are from Japan, so I’m not sure if they’ll want to go home just for a holiday that’s not even in their culture.”

“Well, in any case, the offer still stands!”

It reminded me a lot of when my older sister first went to college. She came home, and my mom always reminded her that she could always bring friends home. Back then, my sister went to a private college that was only ten minutes away from our home, so we saw her every few weeks. Even though my parents moved everything over to Massachusetts, I hadn’t seen them in over a month.

Not gonna lie, I felt like a complete asshat. What good daughter doesn’t see her family for over a month after they move across the country to be close to her when she’s at college?

We talked for a while longer, mostly about the Thanksgiving menu. After having a fight over what form of potato we should have- obviously, cheesy was the better option than mashed- we decided on having both, and leftovers would be split among everybody.

Right as I dropped the call with my mom, I heard a familiar male voice. Well, two familiar male voices.

“Elizabeth? You in there?”

_ Oh, it’s just the twins _ , I thought to myself with a soft sigh. “Yeah?”

“We’re all going out for ice cream! You want to come?”

_ All? Did that mean that Kyoya was going to be there? _ “Uh, sure, just give me a second!”

Even though I was almost positive Kyoya would be among all of them, I wanted to be the bigger person. Why would I let some guy get between me and fun with my friends? Even though we were at odds, I still considered him my friend, though at the moment he was lowest on the totem pole, if that made any sense.

I grabbed a jacket and shoved my I.D. in my pocket before coming out of my dorm. As I had expected, everybody- Kyoya included- was standing there, waiting for me. Tamaki wore the biggest grin on his face.

“It’s snowing!” he squealed.

“Ew,” I said on instinct.

It wasn’t that odd that we were going out for ice cream while it was snowing, because the ice cream parlor was heated inside. In particular, my dad always had dragged my family to ice cream shops while it was way below zero, so I felt right at home.

I got my usual order, a marshmallow malt. The others watched me closely as I ordered, and it was kind of weird; they all got some variation of what I ordered, except for Haruhi and Kyoya, who got some form of mint ice cream.

The booths only sat two people on each side, so I sat next to Haruhi. Across from us, of course, were Tamaki and Kyoya. Kyoya almost refused to look at me. In the booth behind Tamaki and Kyoya sat the twins, Mori, and Hani.

The first few minutes after we sat down were spent in silence. I was sipping on my malt, trying to think of a way to invite Haruhi. She would most likely bring Tamaki along, and Tamaki would bring Kyoya, so I wasn’t even sure I should ask. Mark was going home for his family’s Thanksgiving, so I wouldn’t ask him, though I wanted to. He actually already left for Utah, where his family lived.

“So… Where are you guys going for Thanksgiving?” I asked slowly, finally setting my malt down on the table.

Haruhi shrugged. “I’m not sure yet. It’d be a waste to go all the way back home for a few days just to come back, so I don’t know what we’ll be doing.”

Tamaki, though, beamed suddenly. “I had the amazing idea of renting a house and holding our own Thanksgiving! As I always say-”

“-when in Rome, do as the Romans do,” Haruhi finished for him with a slight roll of her eyes, but I could tell that it didn’t really annoy or bother her. “What are you doing, Elizabeth?”

“My family is having Thanksgiving at our house here in Boston,” I said. “You guys are welcome to come.” Damn it. I said that without thinking. All seven of them heard me. That’s more than twice the amount of people that we would have.

Tamaki gasped. “We’d love to!”

“Will there be enough room for us?” Haruhi asked.

“Kaoru and I can share a room, if that helps,” Hikaru said with a shrug, turning around in his seat to look at me.

“Takashi and I can share a room, too!” Hani said with a grin, lifting another spoon of marshmallow flavored ice cream to his mouth.

I hummed. “I’m not sure… My sister will be coming, and she’ll probably bring her boyfriend, but they’ll sleep in the same room, and my parents of course have a room, so that’s two. Haruhi and Tamaki will probably share, and the four of you said you’d share two each, so that’s five. Kyoya will have his own room, and so will I, so that’s seven, plus whatever family comes. I guess somebody can take the couch if that’s needed, though, we should have fairly comfortable furniture.”

Kyoya didn’t say a word, staring into his mint chocolate shake, one of his fingers occasionally tapping against the table.

Later that night, I called my mom. “I’m bringing over seven of my friends, do you think we have enough room?”

She paused. “... We can make it work! I mean, there’s only five bedrooms, but there’s always the living room and the gym and the library that have space. Just wait until you see the house, Elizabeth! We got it for such a steal, and it’s already fixed up.”

For some reason, I felt uneasy about this Thanksgiving.


	16. Chapter 16

After readjusting my bag over my shoulder, I rang the doorbell and knocked on the door, for good measure. “Hello, we’re here!”

It was Tuesday night, two days before Thanksgiving. Classes had ended around noon, and we had all spent the afternoon packing and getting ready. After dinner at a formal restaurant, we had headed to my parents’ house.

There was a loud shuffle before the large door creaked open. The busty blonde that I knew as my mother greeted us with a wide smile. “Hello! Come in, come in!” she grinned, waving her hand frantically in a circular motion.

Everybody took their time in taking their shoes off and whispering to each other. Haruhi just smiled and mouthed something to me. I should really learn to read lips.

My mother leaned over. “Why is she the only girl you brought?” she asked quietly.

I just shrugged. “She’s my roommate, and I have classes with most of them so we sit by each other.” It wasn’t a total lie. I did have a class with Haruhi, and one with Kyoya, and one with the twins, but I only ever sat by Haruhi and Kyoya. Not Kyoya so much anymore, though.

“Oh. I just wasn’t aware you didn’t have many girlfriends.”

“Oh,” I repeated quietly, hanging up my coat on a nearby hook. “Where are the rooms, Mother?”

She gestured over to a hallway. “Take your pick, and the living room is just off here.”

I let the guys all pick out their rooms. Haruhi decided she wanted to room with me, to save space, and Kyoya would room with Tamaki, so we all had a bedroom. Each room had a queen sized bed and an attached bathroom

My parents sure knew how to pick a nice house, that was for sure.

“It’s so strange,” I heard Tamaki say from the other room. “She’s not a commoner, but she’s not… You know?”

“Her family is wealthy, but according to Wikipedia, they are not fond of flaunting it,” Kyoya said.

I silently growled, but stayed close to my door so I could hear them. Their room was next to mine, and the doors were wide open.

“It’s the sort of house I feel at home in, and I bet Haruhi feels at home, too,” Tamaki stated. “It’s the perfect blend. You think, when we get married, that she’ll want a house like this?”

“That’s something you’ll have to ask her yourself,” Kyoya replied.

Awe, he’s going to ask for her hand in marriage? That’s so sweet.

Haruhi walked out of the bathroom after a few minutes. She had messed her hair up a little. “When is dinner?” she asked.

“I’ll go find out. Can you keep the guys entertained, in the meantime?” I asked her.

“Sure thing,” she said.

I made my way around the house slowly, checking everything out. It was a perfect blend of contemporary and elegance. My father was more old-fashioned when it came to design, and my mother was the opposite. It was often hard to find a house that fit both of their tastes.

On my way to the kitchen, I ran into my father. Literally.

“Oh!” I said, taking a step backwards. “Sorry, Daddy.”

He looked down at me before he adjusted his bifocals. “It’s alright. Your mother told me that you brought six boys from school. Why is that?”

“They’re just some of my friends,” I replied slowly, avoiding looking at him dead in the eye. “If it makes you feel any better, I’m rooming with the girl, Haruhi.”

“It does. Very slightly,” he said, before huffing and walking back down the hallway.

~

Dinner consisted of a meat, which was baked and fried chicken, a potato, mashed, hot homemade bread, and some vegetables, corn and green beans. My father wasted no time in complaining about my mother’s chicken. It wasn’t that she was a bad cook, but he just didn’t like chicken.

“I just thought everybody would like chicken,” Mother said, putting her fork down. “The world is not meant to please only you, Robert.” Sadly, quarrels like this weren’t uncommon, especially at the dinner table.

“My, my, this chicken is divine!” Tamaki said exuberantly, looking between my parents. “What is your secret?”

Mother slowly smiled at him. “Well! It’s breaded in bread crumbs and egg whites, then fried for a minute, then baked the rest of the way. I then…”

I zoned them out, staring at my half-eaten plate. I had stirred my food around that I hadn’t eaten in boredom. My head began to spin, as did the room, though they spun in different directions. “Oh goodness,” I mumbled, resting my elbow against the table so I could prop my head up with my hand.

All conversations stopped. I could feel eyes burning into my head as my head spun.

“Are you alright, Elizabeth?” a male voice asked, though I couldn’t tell whose it was.

Before I could answer, all I could see was black.


	17. Chapter 17

When I came to, my stomach was tight. I slowly looked around, only to be hit by the dreadful feeling of nausea. A hand was placed on my back, and I heard something, but it was muffled. The room was still spinning around me.

“Huh?” I mumbled, trying to lean forward. Somebody had their arm over my chest; I couldn’t see who. It was just a blur.

Almost as slowly as the feeling came over me, it left, leaving me feeling like I was in a simple daze. A daydream. My eyesight wasn’t as blurred, and I could see who had come to my rescue in saving me from face-planting in my food. Mori. Thank goodness for him.

“Are you alright, sweetheart?” Mother asked me quickly, kneeling down next to me. “Why did you-”

Oh. “I must’ve forgotten to take my pills,” I frowned, rubbing the side of my head carefully. “I didn’t mean to. I must’ve gotten caught up.”

Since I could remember, I often had random spells of vertigo. It was a sensation of dizziness, spinning, and nausea for me in particular. After I had gotten a proper diagnosis, the doctors gave me a prescription for it, and I was to take it once a week. In all the excitement and stress of this Thanksgiving holiday, I had forgotten to take the pills.

Kyoya looked in my direction. “Your pills wouldn’t have been much help anyway. It’s the incorrect dosage.”

“What?” Daddy frowned, crossing his arms. “We have highly competent doctors, especially for Elizabeth. It’s the correct dosage.” His statement was as firm as concrete.

“Not only is it the incorrect dosage, the medicine she takes isn’t for vertigo. It’s for nerves, sir,” Kyoya said evenly, in a rather calm tone. After a pause, he said, “I apologize if I seem out of line.”

I stayed silent. How did he know my medicine, and what dose I’ve been taking?  _ Hell yes, you were out of line. _

Daddy gave him a hard look, then cleared his throat. “I see. And how do you know of her medical records- Kyoya, was it?”

He froze. “I know her medical records because-”

“Because when we went to Minnesota, he asked about everybody’s medical needs and stuff,” Tamaki interjected. “That’s all, sir.”

Tamaki was a smooth liar, that was for sure. Haruhi, for some reason, didn’t even look phased.

~

After dinner, my parents went up to their room. They usually stayed up there for the remainder of the night, so I didn’t feel bad not including them in a movie that I started for the guys and Haruhi. Of course, it had to be a classic that I assumed guys like them would appreciate.

“Dirty Dancing?” Tamaki said. “Are they going to be dancing in the dirt? Like commoners do? How thoughtful for Haruhi!” 

I snickered. “It’s not about dancing in the dirt, and commoners don’t really do that. Not much here, at least; I can’t really speak for how things go in Japan.”

Truth be told, it was one of my most favorite movies. It was right up there with Grease, Son in-Law, and The Outsiders. I was happy to be sharing a piece of our culture, especially one of my favorite pieces.

The movie ended much too soon, and to my surprise, nobody fell asleep. We watched another movie that Tamaki chose (Madagascar), and that was when Tamaki, Hani, and the twins all fell asleep. I looked around, only to see Mori reading something off of his phone, Kyoya with his nose in a book, and Haruhi watching the movie ending contently, shoving popcorn into her mouth.

I smiled. This wouldn’t be so bad after all.

That movie ended, and everyone who was sleeping ended up getting either woken up, dragged, or carried to their rooms. Haruhi and I went up to my room to wind down.

“He’s not really an asshole, Elizabeth,” Haruhi stated as she pulled a big shirt over her head.

Frowning, I asked, “What? What are you talking about?”

“Kyoya,” she said. “Just so that you know. He really does have a good heart.”

That’s what she was talking about. “Random, but okay.”

“What are the plans for tomorrow, then?”

As we both got into bed, I thought about that question. “It’s the day before Thanksgiving… We’ll probably go ingredient shopping.”


	18. Chapter 18

The next day was not the greatest. I woke up feeling clammy, hot, and I was shaking terribly. Mother told me that I had a fever, and so I spent the entire day resting. I didn’t want to be sick for Thanksgiving day, but it seemed that there wasn’t an option for me. I was just sick.

“It’s not even a high fever…” I muttered, stalking out to the living room. The thing I felt most bad about was that I had brought so many friends over, only to get sick and have my parents cater to them instead of me. Daddy surely wasn’t happy.

Kyoya sat down at a chair across from me. As far as I knew, he still wasn’t really trying to talk with me. “What degree is it?”

“One oh two,” I shrugged.

He frowned. “That’s not a low fever. It’s a moderately high fever, Elizabeth. What are your other symptoms?”

I looked up at the ceiling. He definitely wasn’t trying to _not_ talk to me now. “Um… I feel hot, but then I feel cold.. I keep shaking from time to time, my stomach hurts, and I have a headache. But if you leave, that last symptom will go away.”

“Ah.” I almost caught him smile. “Should I go, then?”

“No, Tamaki and Haruhi will only take your place anyway,” I said with a light sigh. “WIth all of their kissing and lovey-dovey shenanigans.”

He smirked, tilting his head. “Oh? What sort of lovey-dovey shenanigans?”

“The usual, sucking on each other constantly, flirting all the time, hands all over each other. The lovey-dovey works.”

“It’s almost as if you envy them,” he said, suddenly sounding dry.

I shrugged. “I mean, I kind of do. Every girl pretty much does. I’d love to have a boy like that, but I don’t know. I might have to wait until after college to find a man. The only one who seems interested right now is Mark, but he’s seeming a bit distant now.”

It wasn’t until then that I realized that I was talking to Kyoya, of all people, about my boy problems. “You probably don’t even-”

“Mark is taken, actually,” he stated, making my jaw drop. “He’s had a steady girlfriend for three years, and two relationships online. I wouldn’t advise flirting a lot with him anymore. He doesn't seem to be the guy you’d be interested in.”

Wait.

My eyes widened. “How do you know?”

“I have my sources.”

“Just like your sources on my medicine?” I asked pointedly.

He was silent.

I crossed my arms after a coughing fit. “I would be willing to listen if you are willing to tell me how you know the medicine I take and the dosage. It’s personal information.”

Kyoya stayed silent for a few moments before he cleared his throat. “I looked into your medical records because I wasn’t sure if you were on any birth control. With you being so heavy with Mark all of a sudden, I was worried, as a friend. My sources led me to your medical records, which told me that you take diazepam on a daily basis at too high of a dosage.”

Excuse me? I didn’t even want to get started on the birth control comment.

“It’s a high dosage because I’ve taken it so long, it takes more of it to work than it used to, same with me taking ibuprofen,” I said, taking a drink of my warm vanilla tea. “Why do you think it’s the wrong medication?”

“Elizabeth, diazepam is used to treat anxiety and alcohol withdrawal,” he frowned. “It’s primary use isn’t for vertigo. In fact, the side effects are the symptoms of vertigo. You should be taking something like meclizine, which is used primarily for motion sickness or vertigo.”

I let out a groan. “I’ve tried that already. And benedryl. And over-the-counter medicines that I can’t pronounce, but diazepam is the only thing that works for my body.”

Kyoya got up out of his seat, brushing the cat hair off of his pants. My mother’s cat, Mosey, had been purring happily on his lap. Mosey was disturbed that he was leaving. “You should allow my family’s medical firm help you. We can give you the correct medicine that will work for you.”

“Shameless self promotion?” I said, wrapping my blanket tighter around me. “I see. Maybe.”

“Maybe?”

“A _strong_ maybe.”

_ And guys say that girls are confusing. _


	19. Chapter 19

By the time Thanksgiving dinner was on the table the next day at two, my fever had gone down to one hundred point three degrees. I felt a little better than I had before, good enough to eat and at least try to have a good time.

“Thank you, Mother,” I said, grabbing the bowl of mashed potatoes. Although I loved the cheesy potatoes that she had made, I made the decision to go with the healthier alternative. All that cheese was by no means healthy.

“So, is turkey a usual main dish for a Thanksgiving meal?” Tamaki asked as he cut himself a rather large piece.

Daddy gave him an odd look, but nonetheless nodded. “Yes it is. It is served at every traditional Thanksgiving dinner, and ham is alongside it in our household.”

“We can’t thank you enough for letting us stay here for the holiday,” Haruhi stated, glancing around the table. My sister and her boyfriend sat next to Haruhi and were for the most part quiet.

“It was our absolute pleasure!” Mother grinned at her. “There’s always room at the Hawthorne house for more people. The door is always open. Now, let’s eat!”

After dinner, everybody was too stuffed to talk or even walk around much. I went to my room to crash, it was only three-thirty.

When I awoke, Kyoya stood at the corner of the room, talking to Haruhi. I could hear both of their hushed voices faintly, and I kept my eyes closed so that I could listen.

“You can’t be tiptoeing around her. You’re playing around with her, and it’s not right, Kyoya-Senpai,” Haruhi said. She sounded stern, almost angry.

“I’m not tiptoeing around her, I am trying to look out for her, like a friend would-”

“Don’t you dare lie to me, Kyoya. You’re not treating her right. Just because you have feelings for her doesn't mean you have to act like a jerk to her. She cares, and I don’t think she knows yet, but you know and you use it to your advantage. How selfish!”

_ What? He doesn’t like me. We’re barely friends. _

Kyoya sighed. “It isn’t in my or her best interest to be in a relationship right now. She needs help. Have you noticed how she gets sick a lot lately? It’s because of her medicine.”

“Medicine or not, you need to stop being a jerk and start being honest. You hear me? I'm tired of you playing with people's emotions like that. I thought we were done with that.”

_ Was that a slap? Or a hit? What the  _ hell _? _

“I’m not being a jerk to her,” he retorted. “Just let me handle things. My first priority right now is making sure she gets the medicine she needs, and that’s it.”

Haruhi scoffed. “And what of Mark?”

It sounded as if Kyoya grunted. “He isn’t worth the dirt under her shoe, Haruhi, I couldn’t believe she didn’t see that. He’s a player, messes with the feelings of girls he wants to play around with. He has multiple accounts on dating websites, and I’ve seen him say he has different girlfriends on different social medias.”

“You care, then. Just don’t do anything stupid. The last thing she needs is somebody playing around with her heart,” Haruhi said after a long pause.

The room went quiet, and the door closed. I opened my eyes and turned over.

Kyoya was still there, staring at me. He didn’t have any expression on his face, but his eyes told a different story. He was scared, maybe even worried about something, and concerned. “Did you hear any of that?”

I swallowed. My heart began to beat very fast. “I- Uh…”

Kyoya sighed, and adjusted his glasses. “Well, no matter.” He pulled a pen from his pocket and opened his notebook. “I’ve taken the liberty of checking the rest of your family’s medicines, in case there was another mix-up.” He seemed to scribble something down, and I looked at him suspiciously. He knew all of my family’s medical records, and I barely knew anything about him. How much did he know about us? 

I got up, slowly, and made my way over to him. He kept scribbling in that book, not noticing me approach, and I snatched it away from him mid-penstroke, making a line across the page. I looked at it, and did a double-take. On the page, instead of what I had imagined would be spending records and information about everyone he knew, there was a stunning drawing. It was of a beautiful girl, with one of the prettiest sleeping faces I had ever seen. 

“Kyoya… Who is this?” I asked him, expecting him to snatch back the book and storm out of the room. 

Kyoya gave me an odd look before holding his hand out expectantly. “That was rude. Please hand me my book back.”

“What is it?”

“Give it back to me, please,” he repeated.

“I will when you tell me who you’ve been drawing,” I stated, then I began to flip through the book. It was full of sketches and drawings of a similar looking girl, with curly hair and- “Oh  _ no _ . Kyoya, is it me?”

It couldn't be.

“Please hand me my book back.”

I gave him the book after a few seconds, an odd expression on my face. “When we get back to campus, you are going to explain to me everything. And yes, I heard _exactly_ what you two were talking about.”

Kyoya nodded silently, and left the room without another word.


	20. Chapter 20

The next morning, he was gone. He had left that night when I was sleeping. When I asked Haruhi about it, she just told me not to worry about it. Which of course, only made me worry.

“He’s such a douche,” I muttered into my breakfast cereal. “What the heck is he thinking? Leaving right now? Is he going back to the school? Because I don’t think-”

Haruhi put down her glass of water and looked at me, frowning. Her arms became crossed. “You don’t even know why he left. I don’t understand why you’re so upset with him.”

My jaw dropped. “He-! He’s… So infuriating! One minute we’re really good friends and we get along great, and the next, he’s ignoring me. I just don’t understand him.”

“Nobody does,” she said pointedly. “He doesn’t even understand himself sometimes. That’s why he’s going back to Japan, to help clear his mind out and to think.”

Wait. What?

“He’s going back to Japan?” I felt my face heat up with anger. “What about school? What about you guys? Are you guys going to be leaving, too? What’s he going to do about all of his classes? What about-”

Haruhi cut me off again with a sigh and held up her hand. “We’re not going to be leaving. He already has a college degree in Japan. He came here because Tamaki begged him to.”

“Go figure,” I muttered. It wasn’t that I didn’t like Tamaki -- he was actually kind of funny -- he was just really pushy at times. It didn’t surprise me at all that he had somehow talked Kyoya into coming to America with the rest of them. “Is he going to be coming back? Is he quitting school?”

“He didn’t tell me much,” Haruhi said with a shake of her head. “He just said that he needed to speak with his father about business. That’s all I know. If you really want to know, you can ask him. Don’t you have his phone number?”

That was a good point. I could call him, if I really wanted to. I could even text him. But I knew that I wouldn’t text or call him. “Yes,” I replied, looking down into my drink. “I do.”

Haruhi shrugged. “Then if you truly want to know, call him. I’m sure he’d answer you.”

“What’s that suppose to mean?”

When she didn’t answer, I sighed, getting out of my chair at the counter to put my cup in the sink. “I’ll be in my room then. Packing to go back to school. When’s he going to be back?”

Haruhi looked at me pointedly. “Ask him.”

“Sure thing.” I wouldn’t ask him. Even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t ask him. Why would I ask why he left? Maybe it’s a test. If I don’t ask him, maybe I’ll pass the test. He did want some space. This is the space he wanted, I guess.


	21. Chapter 21

By Saturday, when we had all decided to head back to the dorms for school, Kyoya was not in contact with any of us. That, or somebody was lying to me. It was so hard for me to understand why he had left and why he had left so suddenly. During a holiday, no less. I mean, yeah, it wasn’t a holiday much for them, since they didn’t celebrate Thanksgiving.

It didn’t make the idea that much easier to understand, though.

“That didn’t take long,” I said as I hung my final shirt up in the closet. After taking a step back, I realized there was still something missing from my room. I frowned. “Oh. Fairy lights. Nevermind, I’m not done yet.”

I bent down to look for them in my bag. Honestly, I didn’t think that I had packed them for leaving just a few days, but I must’ve. They weren’t on the wall at all. “That’s funny.”

“What?” Haruhi said, poking her nose out of a book she was reading. It seemed big enough to be one for her language classes, it definitely didn’t have that Bestseller look.

“I can’t find my lights.”

“You didn’t pack them, remember?” she said.

“Well, then where are they?” I asked, waving a hand in the air absently. “If I didn’t take them, they should still be here. And they didn’t fall down, or else they’d be right here on top of my desk.”

Haruhi just shook her head, putting her face right back into that book. “I don’t know where they’d be. Maybe you’ll find them when you least expect to.”

I made a face. “Yeah, right.” It wasn’t a huge thing to be missing, but in that moment in time, I felt like exploding. Where the hell could those lights be? I didn’t take them to my parents’, I didn’t take them down and throw them away, they didn’t fall off of their hooks on the wall. “Do you think the boys’d know?”

“I don’t know, you can ask. They’re probably all in their rooms.”

I nodded slowly. “Right. I’ll be back then.”

First, I went to Hani and Mori’s room. They had their own lights, but they were more of a baby blue shade, and both of them said that they didn’t have a clue where my lights would be.

Actually, no. Mori didn’t say much at all, besides “I don’t know.” Hani did all of the talking for him.

“Thanks anyway,” I said as I left their room, trying not to engage in a fight with Hani over who’d make the best cake- his Japanese staff or myself. Who was he to judge my cooking if he never had it before?

The twins were probably who took my lights, but for some reason, I went to Tamaki and Kyoya’s room before theirs. Maybe because it was the closest to Mori and Hani’s room. I really don’t know why, but when I knocked, I heard a shushing noise.

It came from inside the room, and was no doubt Tamaki. Only he had that type of exaggeration when making such a simple sound. I couldn’t help but be a bit confused as to why he’d shush somebody.

A few long seconds later, the door opened. “Yes, Elizabeth?” Tamaki said with a small smile.

“Do you happen to know where my fairy lights are?” I asked, leaning back on my heels. He was so much taller than me, it was almost embarrassing. In fact, all the guys were. Damn shortness. “I can’t find them, and I swore I didn’t pack them when we went to my parents’.”

“I have.. No idea,” he replied with almost a careful tone. It sounded so weird coming from him. “No clue where they’d be. Have you checked with the twins?” His question almost sounded rushed.

Actually, it wasn’t even ‘almost’. It WAS rushed.

I hummed. “Not yet, but they’re next. I already checked with Hani and Mori. They don’t know anything about it. Thanks, though.”

It didn’t take a rocket scientist to tell that he knew something about my fairy lights. And who had he been talking to before I knocked on his door?

The dots just weren’t connecting.


	22. Chapter 22

School started up again, and in my philosophy class, Kyoya was no longer on the attendance roster. It was a sure sign that he had quit school, or at least this semester. Why would he do that?

It was a foolish idea to keep my hopes up that he’d come back to class before winter and semester break. Finals came and went, and I finished my first semester with an A- average score in each class.

“God bless America,” I muttered, dragging my bag along to the car. It was so cold out, much colder than I expected it to be, and I had smartly forgotten my gloves. It wasn’t the first time. “It’s cold as a witch's-”

I stopped myself when I saw him. There he was, wearing a thick coat and gloves and a striped scarf around his neck. He looked more at peace than I had seen him in a long time, actually. He smiled at me.

“Kyoya?” I said softly, frowning towards him. Without thinking, I allowed anger to build up inside me. I wanted so badly to hit him, to yell at him. How dare he leave like that for weeks? No contact to me or any of the guys or even Haruhi. He never called, texted, wrote to us, or anything. “Kyoya!”

Kyoya lifted a gloved hand to give me a simple wave as he walked towards me. “Aren’t you cold?”

How dare he ask me that after being gone so long? No. ‘Aren’t you cold?’ isn’t how I expected him to first greet me after leaving without a trace. “You idiot,” I growled, looking away from him. “Where were you? Where'd you go? You didn't leave a note, you didn't call, you didn't..." I could feel my ungloved hands forming fists at my sides.

He rubbed his gloved hands together. “I had to go back to Japan to speak to my father. He finally decided to give partial ownership of the Ootori Group to my older brother and wanted me there to witness it. I apologize for leaving so long without note.”

“You better be,” I said, slowly glaring up at him.

Kyoya chuckled down at me. “I thought you’d be pleased that I came back. Do you want me to leave?”

“I want you to… Gah… I don’t know!” I didn’t want him to leave. But I did. He shouldn’t have left like that, but he had a good reason for it. Following his motion, I began to rub my own bare hands together to keep warm.

He frowned. “You must be cold. Where are you gloves and coat?” After he spoke, he took my hands between his and began to rub them to keep me warm. It left my hands feeling quite tingly, almost like dull needles were poking me.

“They’re around here- uh, somewhere..” I suddenly lost my train of thought. “What?”

“Come on,” he nodded, taking one of my hands with a firm grip now. “My car is waiting for us.”

I pulled away from him. “Wait, hold on a second. Where are you taking me?” Who did he think he was, anyway? Leaving a friend like that, with nothing saying where he was going. And now out of the blue, he comes back and wants to take me somewhere?

_ Men are so confusing and infuriating. _

“To your parents’ house,” he said simply with a light laugh, dragging me along to his car. He seemed more light-hearted now that he was back. Almost happier than he had been. It was nice, but almost in a creepy way. “Unless you don’t want to go.”

“I was going there anyway,” I muttered with a shrug. It was a lie, but I wouldn't let him know that.

It felt extremely awkward to be in a silent car with him after he had been gone so long. I wanted to ask why he was taking me to my parents house, but I found it was probably better that I didn’t ask. Deep inside, I somehow knew that it was going to be okay. Somehow. I didn't even know.

“So, you dad… He handed the company over to your older brother? Which one?”

Kyoya shrugged. He wasn’t the one driving, so we could have a better conversation. I don’t know who was driving, but he definitely didn’t speak good English. “He finalized the plans to hand over the company to my oldest brother, Ootori Yuuichi. It wasn’t a big surprise to anybody, except maybe Akito, who was there as well. I somehow think that Akito was under the impression that he was going to inherit the company. It wasn’t the case.”

I frowned. “So, aren’t you sad about that? Didn’t you want to be the one to inherit the company if and when your father retires?” It was something he always talked about, and something I never forgot. You know, when he was in America. At Harvard. Before he left.

No, I wasn’t going to let that go.

He seemed to consider this for a few moments before he smiled. It was a small smile, barely noticeable, but it was a smile nonetheless. “I imagined I would be, at least slightly, but it doesn’t make me feel sad. For some reason, I feel almost as if a weight has been lifted off of my shoulders. I don’t have to work towards it anymore, because it will never be mine now. If I want to, I can definitely buy a stock percentage. But the idea just doesn’t have the appeal it once had.”

I let out a breath. He seemed like a complete different person now. He was no longer tense or quick to anger. He was happy. It almost made my heart swell. Almost. “So are you going to stay now? Continue going to Harvard?”

“It is definitely one of my many considerations right now.”


	23. Chapter 23

As I look back on that day that he finally came back right as winter break began, I laugh at my reaction to how he acted and treated me. Honestly, it was so different than what I was used to with him. It was a complete change in his personality.

We got to my house in a very timely and orderly manner. He offered to carry my things to my room, he offered to help my mother set the table for dinner that night, and he even conversed with my father about the business. It was almost as if he was part of the family now.

Even though just a few weeks ago, he was an ass and left without saying why or when he was coming back.

“So, Kyoya,” my father began to say after he swallowed a rather large piece of steak. “What are your plans after college?”

“I plan on most likely staying in the United States, unless a family matter comes up,” he replied, daintily lifting a napkin to his lips to dab them. He had steak juice all over himself from preparing the meal, but he didn’t seem to mind. “My father recently gave my brothers and I the news that he was going to be handing our family’s company over to my eldest brother when he passes, so there is not much point to staying in Japan besides for family.”

“Are you very close to your family?” I asked him.

He shrugged, taking a piece of steak and putting it into his mouth right after I spoke. It was like he was trying to stall time to answer. “It’s not that I’m not close to them, but I am closer to my friends and they wish to stay here. I don’t plan on finishing American college because I’ve already acquired a degree in Japan for medicine and business. If I wanted, I could open my own practice here in America.”

My mother hummed at the thought. She always liked the idea of somebody in my family marrying a doctor. Though she never encouraged us to study medicine, which I found odd and sexist, but I never commented. “Is that you plan on doing, then?” she asked.

“It’s not off my list of considerations, Mrs. Hawthorne,” he replied with a small smile. “I just must wait for the correct time. There are already so many practices in this area. I’d have to move.”

She waved a hand. “Of course, and you’re still only young. Do you want some wine?”

Kyoya glanced over me, his eyebrows slightly raised. If I hadn’t known him for as long as I had, I would have not thought anything of it. But I had known him for months now, and he didn’t give anybody that expression so freely. Maybe I was overthinking things, I probably was --I always did--. “Sure, Mrs. Hawthorne.”

“And how many times do I have to tell you to call me by my first name, Kyoya?” she said, waving a hand again playfully as she poured wine into a glass with her other hand. My father was the one to hand the glass to Kyoya, and when they made eye contact, I swore that the world was going to explode. Or, at least Kyoya would have exploded. My father wasn’t the sort of guy to give comforting glances.

“Twice, Desiree,” he chuckled after a moment, taking the glass from my father.

I decided to stick to drinking a clear soda. It was caffeine-free, which was good, and had a bit of grenadine in it to make it sweet like cherries. It was in a wine glass to look elegant, but in restaurants, it’s named a Shirley Temple. “Are they going to make you move out of the dorms, because you won’t be attending school any longer?” I asked Kyoya.

“While I do not plan on finishing all the years it takes in order to graduate from American college, I will continue and finish off this year so I have time to figure out a place that I will live nearby. If I need to, I’ll hire a contractor to build a house to my liking.”

The remainder of the meal consisted of small talk, clinking glasses, flan, and ice cream. My favorite part was probably the flan. It was such a weird dessert, like a mix between pudding and jello. I loved it, so my mom had made sure it was also on the menu for Christmas dinner.

That night, I decided to read a book in my room. It wasn’t until about midnight that I had to take a break to get something to eat, drink, or even both. I made my way to the kitchen, quiet as to make sure that I didn’t wake anybody up that was sleeping, and that was when I heard two hushed male voices. My father and Kyoya.

_“Listen, son, there are just a few things I am not very comfortable with. One is-”_ The rest of his sentence was muffled by the walls. I pressed my ear against the wall closer to listen in.

_ “You don’t need to worry, sir, I promise I’ll do my best to-” _

_ “Mark my words, if anything happens-” _

_ “Nothing will happen. So do-” _

_ “Yes.” _

I frowned, and as quickly and as quietly as possible, I ran back to my room to write down all that they had been talking about.

There are just a few things I am not comfortable, one is blank. You don’t need to worry, I promise I’ll do my best to blank. Mark my words, if anything happens, blank. Nothing will happen, so do blank. Yes.

“What?” I said in a loud whisper voice. “This doesn’t even make sense. _Dammit_.”


	24. Chapter 24

The next day, I had almost completely forgotten about the bits of conversation that I heard from my father and Koya in the night. It had slipped my mind completely, but I didn’t really care. I wouldn’t have been able to figure out what the topic was anyway.

My semester test scores had come in online, and I was getting solid C- scores on almost everything. I cursed under my breath as I walked to the dining room for breakfast. After all that time I had wasted studying, and I was only barely getting average scores in all of my classes? It wasn’t right.

“I don’t know if I can keep doing this,” I muttered, taking a sip of tea. It was breakfast, and it was just my mother, Kyoya, and myself eating at the counter. Daddy had already gone in for work and wouldn’t be home until late. “I mean, seriously. These scores are pitiful.”

Kyoya shook his head. “It’s alright, you can just do better next time. I’ll be there to help you and we can even study together if you want.”

It was like talking to a completely different person. Maybe he was putting on a facade just because my mom was with us? “Sure,” I said quietly. “If you don’t plan on getting a degree, why are you even staying at the school for the spring semester? I sure wouldn’t.”

“The tuition and class fees were already paid in full for the remainder of the school year,” he replied simply. “I may as well stay for the time being while I look for a place to live.”

“I guess that makes sense,” I said, nodding slowly.

“Oh, and I would like to measure your ring finger,” he said suddenly. “Tamaki is going to propose to Haruhi soon, and he wants to be discreet about it, so we need a finger to go off of.”

I made a face. “Really? I’m not as skinny as her, there’s no way our fingers are the same size.” Glancing at my hands, I made another face. Yeah, we had nowhere NEAR the same size fingers.

~

“As long as it’s not too small, we can use it as a starting point. I’m sure Tamaki would appreciate it. And it can get resized if it’s that bad. Haruhi wouldn’t mind, I’m sure.” Kyoya shrugged, putting his cereal spoon down. “I would also not mind going shopping for a while today. Christmas is almost here, yes?”

Did Japanese people even celebrate Christmas? Maybe he was just diving into our culture. “Sure, I could probably do with some shopping today,” I had said. There was just something so odd about the way he was acting around me. I just couldn’t put my finger on it.

~

We did end up going shopping later that day, though we didn’t do much of it together. We started at the jewelry store to look at rings, though I wasn't sure how I was helping at all. We only had my ring size, and I had no idea what sort of ring Haruhi would like. I went off of my own likes and dislikes, but it became very clear that I wasn't as versed in fine jewelry as Kyoya was. He was kind of a rich snob when it came to that sort of thing.

After the jewelry store, I went my own way to get presents for my mom, father, sister, and even something for her boyfriend. Of all things, I got her boyfriend some chocolate flavored Trojans. Something that will benefit them both.

That night, I wrapped them in the family room. Kyoya was with me then, and when I reached over for the Trojans, he gave me an odd glance.

“Who are those for?” he asked.

I snickered. “Somebody that I know will be able to use them often. It’s for my sister’s boyfriend, and my sister likes chocolate. And I don’t plan on becoming an aunt anytime soon, so.”

He laughed, shaking his head. “Of course. Are you actually planning on gifting that to her boyfriend?”

“Duh. I didn’t waste five dollars just to have something that I probably won’t use anytime soon. I don’t even have a-”

“Yes, yes, I can agree, you don’t have one. You don’t need to expand on that," Kyoya told me, smirking.

I frowned as I glanced back up at him. “What do you think I was going to say? Because I was going to say dick. Or penis. I’m not sure which one I’d use, but I’d definitely use one of those two options.”

He snorted, shaking his head. “Of course. I was going to say ‘boyfriend’, but that works as well.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Oh? How would you know if I have a boyfriend or not? You’ve been gone for weeks.”

“Haruhi never said you had a boyfriend.”

“And she knows absolutely everything about me?” I questioned. Though it was true, I didn’t have a boyfriend, there was no way he would know that for sure.

“And she doesn’t, but I know well enough that you’d be talking about him by now,” he smirked.

Damn him. It was probably true. “Whatever,” I said quickly, trying to wrap the presents even quicker.

“By the way, Elizabeth,” Kyoya said after a few minutes. He had already finished wrapping by then. “I have reservations for two at a local Italian restaurant if you would like to go with me.”

I paused. Was this a date? _The hell?_ “Uh-”

“Great, be ready in one hour,” he said, leaving the room before I could say anything else.

What the...

There was definitely something up with him. I just couldn't put my finger on it.


	25. Chapter 25

The nearest Italian restaurant was Olive Garden, but I figured that you can’t call ahead in order to make reservations there. It wasn’t possible back in Illinois. Knowing Kyoya, he would only allow himself to eat at only the finest places. He always despised fast food, and avoided it when he could, though he would eat it as a last resort. It must be a really fancy place.

“Oh goodness,” I said quietly. “An hour? Are you kidding? Telling a girl she has an hour to get ready? Bullshit. This is bullshit.” Also, was this a date? What the _hell_ did this mean? Why was he asking me to go out to dinner with him? Was he going to break some new news to me that he was going back to Japan or something? Were the rest of them leaving to move back to Japan forever? Were they never going to come back?

Was I going to have to find all new friends to hang out with?

Shut up, I remember telling myself. This won’t help a single thing.

After a long while of searching through my clothes and trying on more than I'd care to admit, I finally settled on a dark green dress with a belt at the waist to make me look like I had a better figure than I actually did. It was one of the only reasons that I liked that dress, green was my least favorite color. I paired some false diamond stud earrings and a silver necklace with it.

Knowing Kyoya, he'd know the studs were fake right away, but I could only hope he wouldn't say anything. 

I barely had time to put on makeup before he was standing at the entrance of my room, tapping his foot. I turned around and did my best not to gasp.

Kyoya usually dressed nice, mostly in designer clothing, but this was so much different. He was wearing a navy blue tuxedo with a black bowtie. His hair was slicked back just a bit, enough to know that he did indeed put work into his hair rather than just brush it out and let it lay where it wanted to.

My heart skipped at beat at seeing him. It wasn’t a feeling that I was used to. What was this now? “You look really nice, Kyoya.”

Oh my God. Was that really what I said? There were so many other things, _better things_ , that I could have said. But ‘you look really nice’ was all I said. I hated myself right then, I really did.

Might as well have said that he just looked okay. Or maybe even good. _Really nice?_

He chuckled. “Thank you, Elizabeth. I have a car waiting for us. Are you ready?”

“Yeah.”

As he said, there was a car outside of the house waiting for us. It was a white SUV-style limo with shiny tires. I had been in limos before, who hasn’t, but not in one like this before. On the way to the restaurant, I played with the moonlights and drank some sparkling water from the bar. Kyoya allowed himself some wine; he was 21, after all. Oldest in his graduating class.

I looked over at him before we were able to pull into the parking lot with a tilted head. “Why are you taking me to dinner?” I asked, although it took a lot of balls for me to ask such a question.

Really, I was overthinking everything at this point.

He chuckled, smiling. “I just thought you deserved a nice dinner, to repay you for all your worry while I was absent.” The way he spoke, it was almost as if he wanted to say more, but Kyoya held his tongue.

“So just to be clear, this isn’t a date?”

“I wouldn’t exactly say that.”

I squinted. “Then what would you say?”

Kyoya turned to look out the window. “We are here.” As if I hadn’t noticed that on my own.

Instead of making a comment, I just followed him inside and stayed close. The hostess lead us to a table near the back, it was fairly secluded from the rest of the restaurant.

The restaurant itself was really magnificent. Every table had a little glass chandelier with off-white bulbs, setting the rooms aglow in the warmest and most comfortable way. The tablecloths on each table were red velvet, and I was almost afraid to touch them as we sat down. It wasn’t that I had never touched velvet before, it was just… Everything was so nice and proper and elegant, I felt out of place.

“The lady will have a Shirley Temple, and I will have a glass of your best white wine,” Kyoya said right after the waiter asked what we would like to drink. It was nice to know he paid attention to what drink I liked, but did he really have to order for me?

After the waiter left, I looked at Kyoya oddly. “I can order for myself, you know. My voice isn’t bad or anything.” Maybe he thought it was annoying?

“No, but it was what you would have ordered anyway,” he said simply. “After asking what they had to offer and waiting five minutes.”

Oh my Lord. He really did pay attention. That was exactly what I always did. “Then do you already know what I’m going to order from here?” I asked, tapping my finger against the table.

He smiled. “Yes. Fettuccine alfredo with broccoli and grilled chicken, with a ranch salad to start. Linguine instead of fettuccine noodles if they have it, but I already checked. They do not.”

“How do you-”

“Your mother is a delightful woman, Elizabeth. And you are very predictable.”

Then I remembered. “And you went with us to Olive Garden once and I got all of this to eat. Is that it?”

Kyoya shrugged. “Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. You won’t know.”

I almost wanted to glare at him, but I just couldn’t. How often did you come across a man like Kyoya? He was so different. He was almost unreadable, but predictable at the same time. He was so infuriating, but made me feel so good at times. I never liked it when he left. I had hated it when he left without telling me where he was going for so long.

Then it hit me like a ton of bricks, that final realization.

Shit.

I did my best to keep a good composure as we started to talk about my plans for the future semester. The first semester had begun with me striving to become a doctor, but with how school was just starting out, I knew there was no way I was going to achieve that goal. It was a good conversation to keep me from my own thoughts.

“I’ll just have to find a different way to help people,” I said as our waiter came by with our salads. Kyoya had gotten the same salad as me. “Whatever happens, I know I’ll probably donate a good percentage of my salary to some charities and organizations for different things.”

Kyoya nodded. “And the reason that you are so charitable and kind to the less fortunate is because of your late grandfather?”

“Yes,” I said with a small smile. He was so observant. “He died of cancer when he was in his late seventies, pancreatic I think. The worst kind to treat. Grandfather was my idol.” Although I was speaking of death, I somehow did it with a smile. He wasn’t really gone. He was still with us, with me, in spirit. Always.

I sipped on my Shirley Temple as Kyoya began to tell me about his own family. His two older brothers and his sister, Fuyumi, were all older than him. Not only was he the youngest son, but he was the youngest in the family.

“My older brother, Akito, just recently got engaged. It was one of the reasons that I had to go back to Japan,” he explained as our food arrived. “My father explained to me that as of that wedding date, there was no way that I would ever inherit my family’s medical company. It really opened my eyes on many different levels.”

“Many different levels?”

“Precisely,” he said, twisting the straw of his water between his fingers. I hadn’t touched my water yet, but my Shirley Temple was already mostly gone.

It didn’t take too long for us to finish our meal at the restaurant. The food was absolutely delicious, and it was enough food that we had plenty leftover.

He didn’t even let me try to pay for the meal, so he decided that he would pay for the meal and I would pay for the tip if I must. The waiter thanked us, we thanked him for our meals, and we left promptly.

“You know,” I said slowly on the drive back to my house,” I don’t really understand you.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. You’re so confusing. Remember when we first met? You’re a completely different person now. I usually can’t tell why you do things, but if I do understand why you do things, I understand it perfectly. Everything is extreme one way or the other with you.”

“You think so?” he said.

I nodded.

Kyoya laughed. It was still such a nice sound. “I’m not surprised that you think that, Elizabeth.”

Was it his intention to be so confusing, yet obvious?

My mother greeted us at the door with a grin. “Welcome home!”

What the hell. She never greeted us if we were coming back from somewhere. What was up? Something was up, that much I could tell.

“Hi, Mom,” I said, trying not to sound confused. “Did you and Father go out to eat like you planned?”

“No, we ended up being a bit busy, but we made reservations somewhere for tomorrow,” she said, leaning in. “Did you two have a nice dinner?”

Kyoya nodded as he walked into the hallway. “I believe that we did, Mrs. Hawthorne. Elizabeth, will you please excuse us for a little bit?”

The two ushered me out of the room and into the kitchen. I sighed as I put the leftover food away in the fridge, before I finally decided to grab a breadstick to eat. It was still warm, and hadn't gotten cold in the fridge yet.

It wasn’t long after that that he came into the kitchen and grabbed my arm. It wasn’t a tight grab, and he led me out.

“What are we doing?” I asked, frowning as he took me into a different hallway.

“You’ll see,” he said simply.

I huffed. “You are so-”

Before I could finish my sentence, he covered my mouth with his hand and opened the door to one of the spare bedrooms. I gasped against his hand.

It was magnificent. A total transformation. There were flower petals all along the floor, with fairy lights illuminating the room faintly. The room itself smelled sweet and calming, and it only took me a few seconds to recognize the scent as one of my favorite candle scents.

In the middle of the room was a chair. The chair was a dining table chair, white with a stained wood frame, but in that moment I couldn’t tell. A dark purple velvet piece of fabric covered it, and there were even purple flower petals on it as well.

“Oh my goodness,” I breathed as he let his hand off of my mouth.

Kyoya just laughed a bit. “Sit down, Elizabeth. I think we need to talk.”

“O-Okay…” I stumbled across my words as I took a seat at the chair. “About what…?”

Right after I sat down, he reached out and took my hands between his. “I did a lot of thinking while I was away, Elizabeth. A lot of thinking.”

I nodded slowly. “Yeah…?”

“And,” he continued,” I came to a few important conclusions. You see, my entire life, I’ve always wanted to be more than what is expected of me. I wanted to be the third son, but the best son and the most impressive son in my family. As every year passed, I came to realize how much harder that would be for me to achieve. My brother’s engagement really opened my eyes and helped me learn and realize that I’ll never be more than my father wants me to be. But that’s okay.”

“I know how important that was to you,” I said softly. But what did this have to do with me?

Kyoya knelt down, my hands still folded between his. “It helped me realize that it really wasn’t what I wanted. What I wanted was only what I thought that I wanted.”

“Yeah? Then… What did you realize that you wanted?”

“I wanted somebody to accept me for who I was, somebody who wasn’t going to expect more from me than I could possibly give. Somebody who knew they could be themselves with me, and I could do the same. Elizabeth, you’re that somebody.”

For a foreigner, he spoke our language now with such grace. It made my heart melt.

“Which leads me to a question,” he continued. “Elizabeth, we’ve barely known each other for four months. That may not be such a long time, but I believe it has been time enough for me to realize that you’re the perfect girl for me.

Oh my lord. Oh my LORD. OH MY LORD.

I'm not even that religious, but oh my GOD.

He slowly let go of my hands and reached into his pocket. “Elizabeth. You have every right to deny me, and I know that. We have not even been exclusive. In my opinion, that does not matter for this, but it may to you. And if you say no, or yes, on certain conditions, that is fine as well.”

“Just get on with it!” I heard somebody whisper from outside the door. It sounded like a mix of the twins and of Tamaki’s voice.

_Weren’t they all back in Japan?_

Kyoya looked back for a split second, and when he looked back, I saw a trace of him rolling his eyes. “Elizabeth, I have gained permission from both my father and your father and your mother to ask this question. This is the question. Elizabeth, will you do the honor in marrying me and becoming my wife?” He opened a small white box to reveal the most beautiful ring I had ever seen in my life.

Oh my God.

“Kyoya…”

We never even dated. We never kissed. We maybe went on one date, and that was only a few minutes ago. He always seemed uninterested, but interested. I never knew I was interested until just recently.

Even with all of that in mind, I knew what I wanted and needed my answer to be. What it had to be.

“Kyoya,” I said quietly. “Are you sure this is what you want?"

He blinked a few times. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, I know you care about me. Now I do, at least," I said slowly. It was so hard for me to find my words. "And I know how you must think in your head how your life needs to play out. Be successful, get married- but that's not on a timeline. There's no rush for these things."

I couldn't believe what I was saying. But I had to say it.

"I really, really, really like you, Kyoya," I said quickly. "But I don't want you to do this because you feel like you have to to please everybody else. You need to think of what is best for you right now. Not what everyone else thinks is best."

I could so easily say yes to this man and get married. Why wasn't I saying yes?

I continued on anyway. "I don't want to be the woman you marry just because it makes sense. I want to be the woman you marry because we rile each other up, we piss each other off, we have memories together that makes us remember why we stay together. We need time."

Kyoya was silent. He was clearly processing my words.

"I'm saying no for right now," I sighed. "Even though the ring is beautiful. This evening was amazing. But there are so many more dinners we need to go on, so many things we need to do together, before it would make sense for us. As long as we're doing it for the right reasons."

"I understand," he said quickly, tucking the ring and box back into the inside pocket of his jacket. Then he smiled up at me. "I'd be honored to do all of those things with you."

"I need to at least be able to drink at my own wedding," I joked as he grabbed my hands in his. "Is that okay?"

"I've grown up in my brothers' shadows, with everything I need to do and more laid out in front of me," he told me with a nod. "To please everybody else, to please my family. It's... Difficult for me to break free from that mentality. Maybe it's time I do something for myself. Just myself."

I kissed him on the cheek gently. "And maybe one day, you'll get lucky and I'll say yes."

Kyoya laughed before leaning towards me to kiss me. It felt like a lifetime before he broke away, although I wasn't about to complain. "In that case. Elizabeth?"

"Yes?" I tried not to giggle.

"Would you do me the honor in becoming my girlfriend?"

"As long as you do me the honor in becoming my boyfriend," I said with a grin before throwing myself on him.


	26. Chapter 26

They say your life flashes before your eyes when you encounter a near-death experience. I did not expect it to happen as I approached the aisle on my wedding day.

It's been about two years since we began our 'official' relationship. It had gone from a marriage proposal to courtship, not the other way around like many couples do it. I took pride in the fact that I made the great Kyoya wait instead of jumping at the first possible moment. We had to do this right.

I remembered six months into our relationship when he took me to meet his family. I had never been so nervous in my life. Wealthy class in Japan is so different than in the states, at least from what I'm used to. Humongous mansions, glorious gardens, more square footage per person than most houses have altogether in even first world countries. I was nowhere near fluent in Japanese. Kyoya didn't seem to mind, and if his family did, I would never know. They had been so polite.

I remembered going to Tamaki and Haruhi's wedding just six months ago. It was beautiful, grand, but quaint at the same time. Elegance at every corner and detail, like Tamaki, but down to Earth and calm like Haruhi. I have no idea how they managed such a perfect blend of the two of them. It had to have been the most beautiful event I ever went to. It was almost an unspoken agreement that as I had been her Maid of Honor, she would be mine. I wouldn't have it any other way.

I remembered our first big trip together. I couldn't, however, remember if it was before or after the wedding. I don't know why I was surprised that he spared no expense. For how much he loved money, he almost seemed to love spending it more.

Now that I think of it, I wasn't so sure what he loved more. Money or me. Maybe now wasn't the best time to ask.

As I turned to walk down the long aisle, I saw no change in Kyoya's facial expression save for his eyes. His eyes told a story all on their own. There was no question in my mind or heart.

It was me.

~

"You look beautiful," he mumbled against my ear. "Unfortunate that we're surrounded, or else I'd be-"

"Save it for the honeymoon," I laughed, patting his shoulder as we danced. "You'll have plenty of time to do... Well, you know."

Kyoya only responded with a grin. It made my heart jump.

~

"I've heard the Maldives are excellent this time of year!"

"Do you think they offer free ice cream?"

"You do realize that a honeymoon only involves the bride and groom, correct?" I couldn't help but laugh. "Don't worry, Hani, I'll have extra ice cream in your honor."

It was still odd to me that I referred to both Takashi and Mitsukini by their family names. It was like if I called Kyoya 'Ootori' instead of his name. They seemed to like it, and only used their first names with each other. It never ceased to amaze me, their bond.

"I can't wait until we both start working," I said to Haruhi. "I'm going to start as soon as I get back. I can't believe we'll be work neighbors!"

"It wasn't that difficult to invest in some commercial property," Kyoya said absently. "You weren't too particular about the location, in fact."

I shook my head. "There aren't many 'bad' locations around here. I'm just surprised we found a building that could fit us both."

It was really a perfect solution. Haruhi had decided, with Tamaki's persuasion, to open her own law firm one year out of her program. I had been in a similar position of looking for a location for my-

"Thank you for being so supportive," I whispered into Kyoya's ear. "I know it's not all what you expected, but I feel like it's the right thing for me. My calling."

"Of course, my dear," he smiled at me. "One must do things that make them happy and fulfilled. I wouldn't want anything less for you."

After only two semesters of college, I had decided to drop out and pursue something nobody really saw coming. I decided to get my certification in Cosmetology. In other words, a hairdressing license. Stylist, beautician, hair designer, whatever you wish to call it. Kyoya didn't bat an eye when I approached him about it, and was the most supportive out of everybody.

Haruhi and I now shared a split building. One side where you get pampered, the other you can go after your ex that just dumped you. Something like that. It just fell into place so perfectly.

"I don't know where I'd be if I didn't meet you guys," I said suddenly, tears filling up in my eyes. "If Haruhi and I had never become roommates-"

"Don't dwell on the 'what ifs', don't you know better than that?" Tamaki scoffed. "It all happened exactly how it was supposed to!"

"Imagine if I hadn't decided to apply for Ouran in the first place," Haruhi nudged him. "I wouldn't have met you guys either."

"Or if I had stayed with the karate club!"

"Or if we never decided to join the club," the twins chimed in.

I shook my head to attempt to hide my tears. Thank God this makeup was fully waterproof. On this day, it was needed. This wasn't the first time I had almost started sobbing. I didn't even drink that much.

"If you gentlemen and Haruhi will please excuse us, my bride and I have a plane to catch."

"Don't you own the plane? And are in charge of when it takes off?"

I don't think I'd ever get used to this.

Wiping my eyes, I waved goodbye to my dear college friends as my new husband lead me out of the reception hall. He kept his pace slow, one arm lazily draped around my waist.

I began to laugh and stopped him in his tracks as we reached the front door. He looked at me, confused. "Yes?"

"See?" I chuckled, wiping my eyes once more. "Now aren't you glad I told you no?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhhh and it's finally done! Technically five in the making, if I'm being honest.
> 
> Look out for parts to be added to this as bonus scenes and such. What kind of things would you guys like to see? Dating after the refused engagment? Haruhi and Tamaki's wedding? Honeymoon lust? A day in the life of Haruhi and Elizabeth as next door work neighbors? Oh, the possibilities are endless!
> 
> Thank you guys so much for reading this story! It truly means the world to me. I love bringing characters to life in a new light and new experiences that we may never get to see in the manga or the Anime.
> 
> Much love!

**Author's Note:**

> Guys, we're almost at the end! At LEAST one more chapter to go, I might end up making more depending on what your feedback ends up being. It's a very predictable ending, but with a twist that I just now came up with that may lead to further chapters as well. 
> 
> What do you think? Comment your predictions below! 
> 
> "last" chapter coming very soon, be on the lookout! ;)


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